576 THE BLUE GOOSE. 



No. 277. 



BLUE GOOSE. 



A. O. U. No. 169. 1 Chen caerulescens (Einn.). 



Synonym. — Bhvt Snow Goose. 



Description. — Adult in spring: Head and upper neck all around bluish 

 white; lower neck all around and fore-breast rich sooty brown; below, color of 

 breast, fading through brownish gray to white on belly, or to uniform bluish gray, 

 better sustained on sides ; above, color of hind neck, continued on upper back and 

 scapulars, growing lighter posteriorly; rump, tail, wing-coverts (including primary 

 coverts), wing-quills basally, and edges of tertiaries, light bluish gray; termi- 

 nal portion of wing-quills and tertiaries, centrally, blackish ; bill showing 

 prominent, rounded, black borders of open commisural space as in preceding 

 species; feet (of dried specimens) dingy yellow. Adult in winter: Eighter; 

 sooty brown replaced by dark bluish gray, and gray of wings, etc., correspondingly 

 albescent. Immature : Somewhat similar to adult in summer, but much more uni- 

 form in coloration ; head and neck all around dull sooty brown ; the chin only 

 white ; remaining under parts uniform sooty gray, or darker on sides ; back sooty 

 brown, but lighter than neck; rump, tail, wing-coverts, etc., dull bluish gray. 

 Length 26.50-30.00; av. of three Ohio specimens in O. S. U. Museum: wing 17.17 

 (436.1) ; tail 6.60 (167.6) ; bill 2.43 (59.2) ; tarsus 3.46 (87.9) ; middle toe and 

 claw 2.92 (74.2). 



Recognition Marks. — Large ]3rant size ; head and upper neck white ; remain- 

 ing plumage sooty brown and light bluish gray, shading or contrasting; chiefly 

 bluish gray and white in winter. 



Nest and Bggs unknown. 



General Range. — Interior of North America, breeding on eastern shores of 

 Hudson Bay, and migrating south in winter through Mississippi Valley to Gulf 

 coast; occasional on Atlantic Coast. 



Range in Ohio. — Occasional migrant. 



HERE is another of those Hyperborean strangers, of which we know al- 

 most nothing, save that now and then one vaitures upon our hospitality and is 

 promptly betrayed. Dr. Wheaton was the first to record the species for Ohio, 

 having identified two in Columbus in 1875. On October 28, 1896, a pair 

 were taken on the water-works reservoir at Oberlin; and other records have 

 since been made. 



Samuel Hearne, writing more than a century ago, clearly distinguished 

 this species from the Snow Goose (C hyperborea nivalis) but later writers, 

 including Audubon, fell into the mistake of regarding it as the young of the 

 other species, and the Blue Goose was for a long time lost to view. During 

 migrations the two species are not infrequently found together, and the mis- 

 take was not unnatural. 



"By Indian report the great breeding ground of the carulescens is the 

 country lying in the interior from the northeast point of Labrador. Exten- 

 sive swamps and impassable bogs prevail there, and the Geese incubate in the 

 most solid and driest tufts dispersed over the morasses, safe from the approach 

 of man or any other than a winged enemy" (Brewer). 



