BIRDS — ANSEEINAE — BEENICLA LEUCOPAEEIA. 



765 



the bill is shorter than the head. At present I do not see the way clear to do else than con- 

 sider them as one species, leaving it for further materials to decide the question. 



One specimen, 9554, from Simiahmoo hay, is the smallest of all^ and would he taken for 

 Bernida hutchinsii, hut for the possession of eighteen tail feathers. In the yellowish color of 

 the under parts, the small hill and feet, and in its diminutive size, it approaches very closely to 

 the Anser parvipes of Cassin from Vera Cruz, and may possihly represent the same form or 

 variety of B. canadensis, or even with it constitute a distinct species, which, however, I am 

 scarcely inclined at present to admit. 



List of specimens. 



BEENICLA LEUCOPAEEIA, Cassin. 



Anser leucopareim, Brandt, BiiirSc. Acad, St. Petersb. 1, 1836, 37, (Aleutians.) — Ie. Desc. et Icones Anim. Eosa. Avee, 



fasc. 1, 1836, 13; plate ii. 

 ? Bernida leucopareia, Cassin, 111. I, 1855, 272 ; pi. xlv. 

 Anser canadensis, Pallas, Zoog. Eosso-Ae. II, 1811, 230. 



Sp. Ch. — Tail of eighteen feathers ; general appearance that of A. canadensis, but much darker ; head and neck black, bounded 

 inferiorly by a well defined half ring of white on the throat ; a white patch oa each cheek, the two confluent below, triangular 

 on the sides and truncate above ; the posterior outline perpendicular, the anterior sloping backwards behind the eye, almost 

 exactly as in 4. canadensis; there is a faint whitish patch on lower eyelids; upper parts dark wood brown, turning gradually 

 nto black on the rump, tail and primary quills, each brown feather of the fore back and wings with a rather paler edge. The 

 under parts are very dark brown, as dark as the back of A. canadensis, paler along the middle of the belly, the sides as dark as 

 the back ; each feather has an obsolete margin of lighter ; the region round anus is white, abruptly defined against the brown of 

 the belly.; the under and upper tail coverts are white ; the bill is quite short, the culmen about half the tarsus, which is 

 decidedly longer than the middle toe. Length about 35 inches; wing, 18; tarsus, 3.44; commissure, 1.90. 

 Sab. — West coast of America. 



This species closely resembles the Canada goose, and, like it, has 18 tail feathers. It is a little 

 smaller, however, and much darker, standing almost in the same relation to it that B. nigricans 

 does to B. brenta. The belly is as dark as the back of A. canadensis, the color abruptly defined 

 against the white about the anus. The white half ring round the neck is a conspicuous feature. 

 The bill is proportionally shorter, the culmen being only half the length of tarsus, while the 

 tarsus is longer, exceeding the middle toe, instead of being smaller by the length of the nail. 



This species agrees very well in its peculiar proportions of bill and tarsus with B. leucopareia 

 of Brandt, and quite well in color, excepting that in the latter, as described by Brandt, the white 



