Geese 



Snow Goose 



(Chen hyperborea nivalis) 



Called also .- WHITE BRANT ; WAVEY ; BLUE-WINGED 



GOOSE 



Length — 27 to 35 inches. 



Male and Female — Entire plumage white, except the ends of 

 wings, which are blackish, and the wing coverts, which are 

 grayish ; bill carmine ; legs dull red. Immature birds have 

 feathers of upper parts grayish with white edges. 



Range — North America at large, nesting in the far north (exact 

 sites unknown), and migrating to the United States to pass 

 the winter. More abundant in the interior and on the Pacific 

 slope than on the Atlantic, north of Virginia. 



Season — Spring and autumn migrant, April and October ; or 

 winter resident in milder parts of the United States to Cuba. 



The dullest imagination cannot but be quickened at the sight 

 of a great flock of these magnificent birds streaming across the 

 blue of an October sky like a trail of fleecy white clouds. Such 

 a sight is rare indeed to people on the Atlantic coast north of the 

 Chesapeake ; but in the Mississippi valley during the migrations, on 

 the great plains, and in parts of California all winter, fields are 

 whitened by them as by a sudden fall of snow. Lakes in Min- 

 nesota may still be seen reflecting their glistening whiteness as 

 if snow peaks were mirrored there ; and in the Sacramento and 

 San Joaquin valleys, in Oregon and beyond, they are still suf- 

 ficiently abundant to be hunted on horseback by the indignant 

 farmers, who see no beauty in their plumage to compensate them 

 for their devasted fields of winter wheat that the hungry flocks 

 nip off close to the ground. But like most other choice game 

 birds, the snow goose is fast disappearing. Who that knows 

 how rapid this decrease is ever expects to see such flocks of 

 these superb fowl as gladdened the eyes of Lewis and Clarke 

 when they reached the mouth of the Oregon ? 



Closely associated with the white-fronted and the Canada 

 geese, the white brant may be named, even when too high up in 

 the sky at the twilight of dawn or evening for us to see its dark- 

 tipped wings and white plumage, by the higher pitched, noisier 

 cackling that distinguishes its voice from that of the laughing goose 



136 



