CANADA GOOSE 225 



of course, is an index of the general size. The Canada Goose has a 

 bill 1.88-2.31 inches long; that of the Hutchins Goose is 1.37-1.80 

 inches, and that of the Cackling Goose, 1.04^1.44 inches. In flight the 

 Canada Goose can be recognized by its large size, its peculiar pattern 

 of coloration, its slow, measured wing beats, and its sonorous Itonk, 

 honk. 



Swarth (19136, pp. 8-9) has recently shown that, contrary to 

 the statements found in practically all ornithological books dealing 

 in any way with the subject, the true White-cheeked Goose {Branta 

 canadensis occidentalis) does not occur in California. The many 

 references in literature to this goose really apply to the Canada Goose 

 {Branta canadensis canadensis). The White-cheeked Goose is a large 

 dark-colored northwestern race which occupies the immediate vicinity 



Fig. 34. Cackling Goose. 



Figs. 32 to 34 are natural size and serve to show the 

 differences in the size and proportions of the bill which char- 

 acterize average specimens of each race. 



of the seacoast, from Washington at least to Prince William Sound, 

 Alaska, and which in summer probably does not occur farther south 

 than the southern boundary of British Columbia. 



The Canada Goose is definitely known to breed in at least three 

 localities in northeastern California — Lake Tahoe, Eagle Lake, and 

 Lower Klamath Lake. The first record of nesting in California is that 

 by Newberry (1857, p. 100) and pertains to Lower Klamath Lake. 

 Belding (1892a, p. 100) states that, previously to 1892, this goose 

 bred sparingly in a large marsh at Tallac Point, at the south end of 

 Lake Tahoe. Numerous nests were found in the same neighborhood 

 in 1909, 1910 and 1911 by Ray (1912a, pp. 67-71), and an old-time 

 settler in Lake Valley told the last named author that this species had 

 nested there almost every spring for the past thirty years. In all 

 but one of the instances observed by Ray, the nest was 'composed 

 entirely of dry marsh grass and down. In the exceptional case tules 

 were used. One nest measured twenty-two inches over all, but the 



