The Ross Snow Goose 



but in interior localities he had been a sort of apparition, to be expected 

 only once in a "blue moon." To the myopic sight of science, Chen 

 ccerulescens appeared to be a sort of adolescent form, a child that had never 

 grown up. Finally, only a year or so ago, a venerable scientist of the Old 

 World announced, to our self-reproach and manifest relief, that the so- 

 called "Blue Goose" was only an immature phase, a second- or third-year 

 bird, of Chen hyperboreus, the Snow Goose. Why, of course! How 

 simple! But now (1922), after another of his famous winters in the 

 Arctic, Don McMillan comes back from Baffin Island with a Blue Goose 

 under one arm and her eggs in his hat. Now what do you know about 

 that! 



No. 373 



Ross's Snow Goose 



A. O. U. No. 170. Chen rossi (Cassin). 



Synonym. — "China" Goose. 



Description. — Coloration exactly as in C. hyperboreus. "Bill small, outline of 

 feathers on side of upper mandible nearly straight instead of strongly convex, studded 

 at base with numerous papilla?, and with much less exposure of teeth in a blackish 

 recess than in any of the other species." Length about 533.4 (21.00); wing 368.3 

 (14.50); tail 127 (5-00); bill 38.1 (1.50); tarsus 63.5 (2.50). 



Nest and Eggs unknown. 



General Range. — Breeding range unknown, but probably on terra incognita 

 north of Mackenzie; observed during migrations between Kent Peninsula and the 

 mouth of the Anderson River, and southerly from Manitoba to Oregon; winters in 

 California. Casual in Colorado, Louisiana, and northern Mexico. 



Distribution in California. — Common winter resident, chiefly in the Sacra- 

 mento-San Joaquin Valley, but also (especially formerly) about Los Angeles. 



Authorities. — Coues {Anser rossii), Birds of the Northwest, 1874, p. 553 (San 

 Francisco); Daggett, Condor, vol. Hi., 1901, p. 15 (Newport, Orange Co). 



THE OOLOGIST has risked stormy seas to visit isolated islands, and 

 endured severe winters to claim rarities from the shores of the Arctic. 

 As a consequence, the nesting habits of most birds are known. There are 

 at least two birds, however, which seek a safe retreat so far to the north 

 that for many years they have successfully eluded egg-collectors, and their 

 nests and eggs have remained a secret known only to themselves. One is 

 the Surf Bird, a migrant along the California coast, and the other, the 

 Ross Goose, a common winter visitant of the great valleys of the state. 

 Up to 1906 not even a summer record for the latter species existed. The 

 supposition is that the breeding grounds of this bird lie on the Arctic 

 islands north of the Mackenzie River. 



1850 



