Il6 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



LXV. ANSER Brisson. 1760. 

 171. White-fironted Goose. 



Anser cdbifrom (Gmel.) Bechst. 1809. 

 Casual in Eastern Greenland ? {A. 0. U.List.) 

 171a. American White-fronted Goose. Laughing Goose- 



Anser albifrons gambeli {YiA'RT'L.) Coues. 1872. 



Not rare in fresh water between Lat. 66° and 68° 30' N. in 

 West Greenland. {Arct. Man.) Very rare around Newfoundland, 

 {Reeks.) This species has been noted at Montreal and one was 

 shot at Lac Jacques Cartier, north of Quebec, in the autumn of 

 1870. {Dionne^ A friend and' myself came across three indi- 

 viduals of this species on the Isle de la Paix, Lake St. Louis, 

 near Montreal, but failed to secure specimens. (yVintle.) Only 

 a casual visitor in Ontario. 



From the middle of April, or a week later, to the middle of 

 May this species is quite common in western Manitoba and East- 

 ern Assiniboia. It is then passing to its breeding-places which 

 Richardson says are in the wooded districts, skirting the 

 Mackenzie River to the north of the 67th parallel, and the islands 

 in the Arctic Sea. Macfarlane found it breeding on Frank- 

 lin Bay, Murdoch at Point Barrow, Dall all along the Yukon, and 

 Turner in its delta, Nelson along the Arctic coast and Fannin 

 says it breeds on the mainland of British Columbia and that 

 young fledglings have been taken on CowichanLake, Vancouver 

 Island. The breeding range of this bird is therefore the whole 

 northwestern part of the continent and its peculiar spring migra- 

 tion accounted for. 



Breeding Notes. — A clutch of four eggs in my collection 

 was taken on an island in Mackenzie Bay, west of the 

 mouth of Mackenzie River, June 5th, 1895. The nest con- 

 sisted of a hollow in the sand lined with down. {Raine.) When 

 the White-fronted Goose first arriyes in the north, the lakes are 

 but just beginning to open and the ground is still largely covered 

 with snow. The last year's heath-berries afford them sustenance, 

 in common with most of the other wild-fowl, at this season. The 

 mating season is quickly ended, however, and on May 27th, 1879, 1 

 found their eggs at the Yukon mouth. From this date on, until 



