Snow-Goose 1 5 



difference is scarcely sufficient to enable observers to recognise the bird on the wing, and 

 particularly in the case of birds flying like geese, i.e. at a considerable distance from the 

 observer. 



Again, the geographical distribution of snow-geese in North America, so far as 

 ascertained, is to a certain extent against Mr. Buturlin's supposition. Thus, it is known that 

 in the western part of North America only the lesser snow-goose, i.e. Chen hyperboreus, is 

 found, while on the eastern side we have Chen nivalis. Accordingly, in order that Chen 

 nivalis should be the bird which has been observed in Russia, as e.g. in the Governments of 

 Kiev, Orenburg, and on the Caspian, it must be assumed either that East American birds 

 migrate thither, or that Chen nivalis breeds in some part of Siberia. In the latter case, 

 there would be the remarkable circumstance that the distribution of the form breeding in 

 Siberia and in Eastern America is interrupted in Western America and replaced by another 

 form, namely, the lesser snow-goose. This would be a distributional feature without 

 parallel in the animal world of the Northern Hemisphere. 



I think, therefore, that Mr. Buturlin's supposition is hardly probable, although, in 

 the absence of full information, it cannot be definitely contradicted. Accordingly, for the 

 present, we must retain for the snow-goose of Russia the name hyperboreus, given by Pallas, 

 and accepted by all ornithologists. 



Geographical Distribution 



We have only the following scanty information with regard to the geographical dis- 

 tribution of the snow-goose in Eastern Europe, and this information is of such a kind that 

 it is impossible to give it full reliance. Pallas says: " Together with the black brant, it 

 appears in spring in large numbers in the valley of the Lena, whence on the melting of 

 the ice it probably proceeds to Polar lands not yet explored." According to the same 

 authority, these birds are very abundant around the Yana, so much so that men and dogs 

 feed on them the whole winter. " More rarely," he continues, " they occur near the Kolyma 

 and along the Indigirka. They are very rare in Kamchatka along the Yurak shore and at 

 the mouths of the Obi, where, as well as on Taimyr, they are met with on the promontories 

 of the continent extending into the Arctic Ocean." 



Evidently Pallas wrote this mainly from hearsay ; but there is no doubt that, from 

 the Lena on the east, along the shores of the Arctic Ocean and on the adjacent islands, 

 the snow-goose is to be met with. According to Krasheninnikov, in Kamchatka " the 

 snow-goose is especially rare. On the contrary, in the Northern Sea, about the Kolyma 

 and other rivers, there are so many that the hunters kill a vast number, on which 

 account the very best down is brought to Irkutsk from those places. The geese are 

 caught when they are moulting, in a somewhat curious manner. In the spots to which 

 the geese most resort are built huts with open doors. In the evening the hunter puts 

 on a white shirt or shuba, and having stolen upon the flock, shows himself, and then 

 creeps into the hut, upon which all the geese follow, and enter the hut, while the hunter, 

 having passed through, closes the other door and, running to the other side, kills all the 

 geese in the hut." 



Personally, I am of the opinion that snow-geese breed in Arctic Eastern Siberia and 

 on the adjacent islands in considerable numbers, and that they migrate thence mainly to 

 the Pacific shore to winter, and that only an insignificant proportion migrates westward ; 

 the latter contingent being the source of those occasional snow-geese met with here and there 



