48 CIRCULAR 363, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
although a few species join it after a flight westward along the Alaskan 
Arctic coast (fig. 21). Some of the scoters (Melanitia and Ordemia) 
and other sea ducks of the north Pacific region, and the diminutive 
cackling goose (Branta canadensis minima), which breeds in the delta 
of the Yukon River, use the coastal sea route for all or most of their 
southward flight. The journey of the cackling geese, as shown by 
WA BREEDING RANGE 
MSG WINTER HOME 
wece PRINCIPAL MIGRATION ROUTE Yj 
FIGURE 24.—Probable breeding range, the winter range, and the migration route of Ross’s goose. 
This is the only species of which all members apparently breed in the Arctic regions, migrate south 
through the Mackenzie Valley, and upon reaching the United States turn to the southwest rather than 
the southeast. The southern part of this route, however, is followed by some mallards, pintails, bald- 
pates, and possibly by other ducks. 
B4509M 
return records from birds banded at Hooper Bay, Alaska, has been 
traced southward across the Alaska Peninsula and apparently across 
the Gulf of Alaska to the Queen Charlotte Islands, the birds following 
the coast line south to near the mouth of the Columbia River. There 
the route swings toward the interior for a short distance before con- 
tinuing south by way of the Willamette River Valley. The winter 
quarters of the cackling geese are chiefly in the vicinity of Tule Lake, 
