r 
(COPY) 
July 31, 1922. 
Sr. E. W. Nelson, 
Bureau of Biological Survey, 
U. S. Dept, of Agriculture, , 
Washington, S. C. 
M 
Sear Sr. Nelson: 
I have your letter of July 17 and am just as happy that you 
are going to investigate the big goose story of No. Dakota which 
has interested me for sane time. I first began to hear about it a 
couple of years ago. Now as to the weights of geese, you have to allow 
quite a good deal for the enthusiasm of those Western people and I don’t 
take very much stock in any of the weights over 14 or 15 lbs., although 
Mr. Mershon says he, himself, has weighed them about 18 lbs., as I 
remember it. I seem to have lost sane of his correspondence. The 
largest goose I have weighed myself in the East is 12 lbs., this was 
last Autumn, an extremely large bird. I think some years ago I shot 
one just as large but I never kept the record. Dr. H. B. Bigelow 
weighed one from Pamlico Sound last year which weighed 13 lbs. Mr. 
Frank Forrester mentions geese up to 14 lbs. in the Chesapeake. 
Mr. Mershon's specimen came a week or two ago, is said to be 
a bird of the year, shot in October, weighing 14-3/4 lbs. killed by 
Lee S. Petibone near Dawson, N. Dak. Although it is mounted so that 
it looks like a young elephant it is not particularly large. The wings 
which are not very easy to measure run from 51.5-53 cm., the tarsus is 
9.2 and the bill 6.6, the middle toe and aim is 10.1, the tail is 20. 
I cannot see anything remarkable in this specimen although I have not 
checked the msasurements very carefully. There is a fine breeding 
female taken on the nest from No. Dak. in the Brewster collection. 
This is a large bird but I do not think it is large enough to make a 
good race from. Won’t you check these measurements of the Mershon 
goose and let me know if there is anything remarkable in them. 
Sincerely yours. 
(Signed) John C. Phillips 
