The Canada Geese 



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Taken on the grounds of the Sacramento Outing Club, near 

 Pennington, Sutter County 



Photo by H. C. Bryant 

 Use by courtesy California Fish and Game Commission 



HUTCHINS GEESE 



Of the nine varieties of geese wintering here the Hutchins goose and 

 the cackling goose, often collectively called "brant" by the hunter, are 

 most abundant, perhaps due to the direct route available from their 

 nesting grounds in Alaska. 



It has been distinctly proved that the California geese with black 

 heads and white cheeks range in size from the honker, with a total length 

 of about forty inches, to the cackling goose, with an average length of 

 but twenty-four inches. On the main basis of size and separate nocking 

 and breeding grounds, they are divided into three varieties. The Hutch- 

 ins goose is intermediate in size between the Canada and the cackling 

 goose; and in its return to its northern home it goes further north than 

 the other forms of the Canada goose, even nesting along the shores and 

 islands of the Arctic coast, near the mouth of the Mackenzie River. 

 The southernmost breeding stations are found upon the Aleutian 

 and Near Islands. Most of the birds of this species spend the winter in 

 California, though a few are to be found in the southern United States, 

 west of the Mississippi River. 



White cheeks and black legs and feet are characteristic of all mem- 

 bers of the Canada group. Variety distinction is largely dependent on 

 size. The Hutchins goose is said to be more noisy than its larger relative, 

 the Canada goose, but lacks the falsetto cries of the cackling goose. 



1864 



