314 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family ANATID^. Genus Chen. 



Subfamily Anserine. 



LESSER SNOW GOOSE. 



CHEN HYPEEBOEEUS— (PaZZas). 



Plate XXXII. 



Anser hyperboreus, Pallas, Spicil. Zool. vi. p. 25 (1769) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. 

 p. 490 (1885) ; Seebohm, Col. Pig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 30, pi. 11 (1896). 



Anser albatus, Cassin. ; Saunders, Proc. Zool. See. 1871 p. 519. 



Chen albatus (Cassin), Dresser, B. Eur. iv. p. 409, pi. 417, fig. 2 (1873). 



Chen hyperboreus (Pallas), Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 275 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. 

 Brit. B. pt. xxyi. (1893) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 147 (1894) ; 

 Salvadori, Oat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 84 (1895) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. ii. 

 p. 225 (1896). 



Geographical distribution.— British : The Lesser Snow Goose is a 

 very rare straggler to Ireland on autumn migration, and has been observed in 

 England. The claim of this species to rank as " British " rests on the following 

 occurrences : — Ireland : Lake Tacumshane, south coast of County Wexford (two 

 immature examples purchased in Leadenhall Market, one example shot at the 

 same time and place but not preserved), November, 1871 ; Termoncarra, Co. Mayo 

 (flock of seven seen, one of which was shot and another trapped), October, 1877. 

 The two examples said to have been captured in Ireland, and afterwards placed 

 in Lord Derby's menagerie at Knowsley, and which subsequently were sold by 

 auction to Castang, the bird and animal dealer of London, have too dubious a 

 pedigree to share the honour of positive evidence. England : Coast of Cumber- 

 land (one adult example, "identified but not obtained"), August, 1884; others 

 noticed in Yorkshire (1891), Northumberland and elsewhere, but no examples 

 obtained. Foreign : Northern Nearctic region ; more southerly in winter. It 

 breeds, as far as is known, in the Arctic regions of North-west America ; probably 

 also breeds in the extreme north-east of the Palsearctic region, and winters as far 

 south as California in the west and the Valley of the Mississippi in the east, and 

 visits Japan at that season, a fact which strongly confirms the suggestion that it 

 breeds in Asia. Owing to the two races of this species being confused, it is 

 difficult to trace the geographical area of the smaller form in any more detail 

 with accuracy. 



Allied forms. — Chen nivalis, only known to breed in Hudson Bay terri- 

 tory, but is probably circumpolar, as it has occurred on migration in various 



