This species may always be recognized by the reddish brown upper parts; blackish head, with white cheeks and chin and under parts silvery white with grayish wash next to the ruddy. Bill is very stout and broad at the end, and the tail feathers are very stiff and pointed. Females have back, crown and sides grayish, cheeks showing traces of white as on the male. These ducks are very quick either in the water, on land, or in flight.
Nest.—They are usually made of grass and rushes and generally lined with down in which are placed their eggs to the number of from 8 to 12 of a grayish white color (2.40 × 1.75) unusually large for the size of the bird.
Range.—The whole of North America, breeding from Central British Columbia southward as far as Lower California.
SNOW GOOSE.
169. Chen hyperboreus hyperboreus. 26 inches.
Plumage entirely white with primaries tipped with black. This is the smallest species of the Snow Goose, the eastern variety being some ten inches longer, found in N. A., west of the Mississippi River.
ROSS GOOSE.
170. Chen rossi. 23 inches.
This beautiful species, with its breeding range unknown, winters in California and as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, and is the smallest of the family.