38 
) 
Inspector A. II. Joy of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police tells me 
he killed two “ducks that honked like geese” at Craig harbour, southern 
Ellesmere island, in the autumn of 1925. They were “scarcely half as 
large again as an eider and had fine white rings about their necks”. An 
Eskimo aecompanyng him stated that he had seen similar birds on the 
Humboldt glacier of Greenland. This is unmistakably this bird and sug- 
gests a high northern breeding limit. The migration route seems to be 
confined to the west side of Hudson bay and James bay. Mr. H. E. Bland 
(Hudson’s Bay Company) mentions a “small grey goose” as well as the 
“Canada Goose” as occurring at Weenusk Post, and Mr. J. W. Anderson of 
Albany Post, describes a goose “the same as the Canada Goose in every way 
save that it is much smaller” and with a “note like some person rattling a 
large number of empty tin cans” as occurring in some numbers on migration 
on the shores between cape Henrietta Maria and Trout river. No reports 
referable to this form come from correspondents on the east side of Hudson 
bay. It is regular though not very numerous through southern Manitoba. 
We have several specimens from Whitewater lake and a convincing report of 
its rare occurrence on Shoal lake in that province. R. M. Anderson has 
furnished measurements and descriptions of a number of specimens hitherto 
identified as minima , but plainly referable to this subspecies, in the Museum 
of the University of Iowa, taken at Whiting, Wolf Creek, and Sloan, Iowa, 
and Platte and Wood rivers, Nebraska. In the United States National 
Museum there are migrant specimens from Andalusia, Illinois, and the 
“North Red River”. In the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia 
are specimens from “Mississippi River”, Illinois, and two from Sweetwater 
lake, North Dakota. Mr. J, H. Fleming informs me that a live pair 
in the Toronto Zoo, regarded as cackling geese but undoubtedly this bird, 
came from Kansas. Major Allan Brooks writes that he has secured 
one of these “dwarf geese” at Brownsville, Texas, and has information 
that it winters in Tamaulipas, Mexico. We can thus map out the whole 
range of the species in a fairly satisfactory manner. 
Breeding in the eastern Arctics, it migrates down Hudson bay through 
southern Manitoba, Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas, and the Mississippi 
valley, wintering on the northern gulf coast of Mexico. 
A number of records without this line of flight can probably be regarded 
as stragglers from the main route. A few have from time to time visited 
Jack Miner’s sanctuary in southern Ontario. Manly Miner has described 
them several times as “not much larger than a green-head mallard drake. . . . 
but same markings as the Canada goose”. In 192G he reported that 
about one a year visited the sanctuary and that he had a “winged” bird 
permanently. In the autumn of 1927 a pair spent a short time and the 
following autumn eight came in. Of their voices he writes — “It does not 
honk but cackles or clucks like an old hen scolding”. In another place 
he says — “their noise is K-r-r-r-r like an old hen telling her chicks to look 
out for a hawk or calling her young to feed — -K-r-r-r a sort of trill”. Else- 
where he calls it a “gurgle in the throat”. Drawing and measurements 
taken by Prof. Win. Rowan of a specimen taken at Sullivan lake, Alberta, 
suggest this subspecies. At least two have been taken in the autumns of 
1926 and 1928 at cape Tourmente, near Quebec city. Through the courtesy 
of Mr. E. G. White of this city I have had the pleasure of examining both 
of these in the flesh. I have also examined winter specimens in the Academy 
