XXIII 



THE SNOW-GEESE, BRANT, ETC. 



THE snow-geese are smaller than the Canada or 

 common wild-geese, and are near the size of the 

 brant, familiar to those who shoot on the bays of Long 

 Island. There are three varieties, all white, as their 

 name would indicate, and one of them, Ross's snow- 

 goose, is one of the smallest geese known, adults of 

 this species weighing only two and one-half to three 

 pounds. 



The snow-goose and the lesser snow-goose are so 

 much alike as to make it necessary to measure them 

 carefully in order to distinguish them. 



The lesser snow-goose is the Western variety, and is 

 found from the Arctic Sea to the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The greater snow-goose is the one found east of the 

 Mississippi River, and was formerly very abundant at 

 Hudson's Ba)', where a single hand has killed as many 

 as a thousand in a season. 



The snow-geese were extremely abundant in Dakota 

 a few years ago, and I have seen them when they cov- 

 ered the ground in tremendous flocks, which resem- 

 bled at a distance snow on the ground. They are 

 extremely shy, but many are shot from a blind in the 

 stubble-fields, or as they fly to and from their feeding- 

 grounds. 



156 



