Hutchins's Goose 169 



I cannot discern in their descriptions any solid basis, except perhaps the number of tail- 

 feathers — 18 to 20 in canadensis and occidentalism and 14 to 1 6 in hutchinsi and minimum 

 {minima), — for the grouping of these geese. The question of bills remains quite open, and 

 who knows whether the latter may not offer more substantial characters for the separation 

 of the forms (or species?) of this group than those by which we have been hitherto 

 guided ? 



At present I can do nothing but accept the determinations of these authors for the 

 goose found by Stejneger on Bering Island, and by other investigators in Japan, and 

 thus regard the Russian representative of the genus Leucoblepharon as the form called 

 hutchinsi. 



At my request Mr. Frohawk has figured an example of this form, and I feel sure 

 that anyone, after a careful examination of this sketch, will at once see how far this type of 

 the genus Leucoblepharon differs from the other black-footed geese of Europe and Asia, by 

 its peculiar arrangement of colours. 



To the information that this goose nests in the Komandor Group (Bering Island), 

 and in the Kuriles, and that in winter it occurs in Japan (which was made known by 

 Temminck as early as 1840, and confirmed by Blackiston and Pryer), I can add nothing. 

 There are, in fact, no accounts of this goose in Russia. 



As to North America, there is no small amount of information with regard to this 

 goose, although it is difficult to make out to which form it refers. I may, however, observe 

 that in their mode of life, their tendency to visit cultivated fields, and other habits, the 

 geese of this group seem to differ markedly from the other black-footed geese, and perhaps 

 only the red-breasted goose (from among the latter) shares with them the instinct of flying 

 inland to feed. 



Of three eggs of this species from the river Anderson, gathered on July 4, in 

 the Zoological Museum of the St. Petersburg Academy, Mr. Gobel gives the following 

 measurements : — 



(a) breadth 57 mm. ( = 2.24 in.) ; length 85 mm. ( = 3.34 in.) ; weight 1464 cgrm. 

 {b) „ 56 „ ( = 2.20 „); „ 86 „ ( = 3-38„); « 1320 „ 

 (0 „ 56 „ ( = 2.20 „); „ 85.5 „ ( = 3.36,,); „ 1380 „ 



or mean breadth, 56.3 mm. ( = 2.21 in.) ; mean length 85.2 mm. ( = 3.35 in.) ; mean weight 1388 cgrm. 



I may here also cite the measurements and weights of two eggs also from the 

 Anderson, distinguished as canadensis, which have been verified by Mr. Gobel : — 



(a) breadth 56.5 mm. ( = 2.22 in.); length 85 mm. ( = 3-34 in.) J weight 1368 cgrm. 



(b) „ 54-5 » ( = 2,14,,); „ 86 „ ( = 3.3.8»); „ 1308 „ 



or mean breadth, 55.5 mm. ( = 2.18 in.); mean length 85.5 mm. ( = 3-3 6 in J mean weight 1338 cgrm. 



"These two geese form," observes Mr. Gobel, "in regard to the structure of the 

 shell, a group somewhat remote from the black-footed goose. Their structure, although 

 rather resembling the latter, is coarser, as they exhibit a certain colouring in consequence of 

 soiling, not proper to the egg itself. In form they are prolonged ; in Leucoblepharon 

 hutchinsi the mean length is 28.9 mm. (=1.13 in.) more than the mean breadth; in 

 canadensis 30 mm. (=1.18 in.). These eggs, therefore, are shaped like those of Melanonyx 

 brachyrhynchus. 



