DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS: CANADA GOOSE 105 
rump and tail black, upper and lower tail coverts white; iris brown; bill, legs, and 
feet black. Male in eclipse plumage: Duller. Young in juvenal plumage: Similar, 
but throat and cheeks sometimes mixed with blackish. 
Range. —Breeds in northern North America south of the barren grounds, from 
limit of trees in upper and lower valleys of the Yukon, northwestern Mackenzie, 
and western Hudson Bay region south to Gulf of St. Lawrence, Indiana, Nebraska, 
northern Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California; winters from the coast and in 
southern interior of British Columbia, northwestern Wyoming, South Dakota, 
Ohio, -Maine, and Nova Scotia south to Florida, Gulf coast of Mexico, and southern 
California. 
State Records. —In the early days of the settlement of the western United 
States, the Canada Goose was a common breeder in the Rocky Mountain region 
south to northern Colorado, but those found by Henry, 1S53-1855, at Fort Thorn 
were nesting 500 miles farther south than their nearest known breeding neighbors. 
Henry’s record is the only breeding record for the State, but the Goose was 
formerly an abundant spring and fall migrant and, notwithstanding its greatly 
diminished numbers, many winter and a few still pass in migration. In 1846 the 
species was already abundant by September 5 near Sandia, and the latter part of 
that month at Albuquerque (Emory). Some were heard honking as they flew over 
Lake Burford September 28, 1904, and five were seen there two days later (Bailey); 
they were common October 14, 1905, at Jornada (Ligon); and abundant, Novem¬ 
ber, 1853, on the Rio Rito near Laguna (Kennerly). In Henry’s time they were 
fairly common all winter on the lower Rio Grande near Fort Thorn, abundant in 
February, 1876, near Albuquerque, and still common in April of that year at Algo- 
dones (McCauley). [On the Rio Grande near Albuquerque seven were seen Decem¬ 
ber 4 and 30, and others noted December 8, 1916, one specimen being taken (Wil¬ 
lett); they are said to winter, arriving in November in 1917 and 191S (Leopold). 
On December 5, 1918, nine were seen on the Rio Grande near La Joya (Ligon).] 
On the Carlsbad Bird Reserve the species was noted in February, 1914 (Wilder), 
and 41 were noted March 23, 1914 (Cooper); 500 wintered 1914-1915, several flocks 
were noted January 19,1915, a flock was seen March 11,1916; [common in December, 
1916, seven seen, December 4; 30, December 8 (Willett). Near La Joya on the Rio 
Grande 16 were seen and 12 miles north of La Joya 24 were seen on January 16 
1920 (Ligon)].—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Usually on dry ground, often on an island or a low mound, the top of a 
beaver house or a rock surrounded by water, sometimes merely a slight hollow lined 
with a few breast feathers, but at other times made of grass and leaves, lined thickly 
with gray down. Eggs: Usually 5 or 6, “creamy white or dull dirty white at first, 
becoming much nest stained and sometimes . . . nearly covered with ‘cream 
buff’ ” (Bent). 
FooD.-^-Green vegetation, scattered waste grain and sprouting grain, wild berries, 
aquatic plants, as wild rice, sedges and marsh grasses, insects, especially grass¬ 
hoppers, bivalves, snails, crustaceans, and small animals found in flooded marshes. 
General Habits. —The Canada Goose, or Honker, is the familiar 
Wild Goose of the mountains and zoological parks. In the National 
Zoological Park at Washington where they nest, their dull eclipse plu¬ 
mage was watched by Mr. Ned Hollister, then superintendent of the 
zoo. Some pertinent notes on the habits of moulting—eclipsed—Can¬ 
ada Geese are given by Mr. Howley from Newfoundland. He writes: 
“During the breeding season they moult the primary wing and tail 
