LESSEE SNOW GOOSE, ftfi 
DISTRIBUTION AND MIGRATION OF GEESE. 
Chen byperborea ( Pall. ). Laser SnOK I 
Breeding rcmge. -Much remains to be Learned of the boundaries of 
the summer home of the sno* geese. " Vast nn 1 1 1 > >«.* 1- of this goose 
were seen on the northwestern portion of Banks Land, latitude 74 . 
August L9, L851, as though they had conic from more northern 
breeding grounds, and in the spring of L85J and 1852 (lock- were seen 
passing north in the vicinity of the northern shores of this island; and 
yet no snow geese have been reported by any of the various expedi- 
tions that have summered on the islands immediately to the north 
of Banks Land. Snow geese are known to breed along the Arctic 
coast east of the Mackenzie River and to cross to Victoria Land, 
but here the record ends. Wollaston Land and Victoria Land form 
an enormous island whose interior has never been visited by white 
men. Many explorers have passed through the region to the north- 
ward, but no one has reported a snow goose in the whole district east 
of longitude 115 c and north of latitude 70 c with the exception of a 
single flock seen near Bellot Strait in June, 1859, and three wanderers 
found in dune, 1882, at Fort Conger, a thousand miles north of the 
regular range. Boss lived for three years at the base of the Boothia 
Peninsula without seeing a snow goose. Parry found but few birds 
and only one nest during his two years* sojourn on Melville Peninsula, 
and Kumlein reports them as rare visitants at Cumberland Sound. It 
follows, therefore, by exclusion, that the great bulk of the snow geese 
breed south of a line drawn from the north end of Southampton Island 
to the south end of Melville Island. It is supposed that the Lesser 
snow goose is the form breeding at the mouth of the Mackenzie River, 
and east to about longitude 115°. It follows, therefore, that the 
greater snow goose is restricted in its breeding range to the district 
from Melville Peninsula to Victoria Land, an area perhaps half as 
large as Greenland, as yet scarcely visited by an ornithologist. 
The most western breeding place of the lesser snow goose is Richards 
Island, on the eastern side of tin 1 mouth of the Mackenzie River: 
thence it ranges eastward to about Coronation Gulf. There s<>t>ni to 
be two routes by which the snow geese reach their summer home. They 
are common in winter in California: indeed, this seems to be their 
principal winter abode. In the spring migration some continue up 
the coast to Alaska, but all observers agree that they are not common 
in Alaska during tin 1 spring migration. On the other hand, the spe- 
cies isan abundant migrant along the Mackenzie at Fort Simpson, just 
south of the breeding grounds, and the Hocks in spring fly at a great 
height on their course toward the north. This is just the route the 
snow geese would take from Calif ornia to their breeding grounds if 
