SNOW GOOSE

any of several species of pure-white geese with black wingtips, pink legs, and pink bill with black gape (grin), belonging to the family Anatidae (order Anseriformes). Hunters call it wavey, or wavyfrom an Indian name. Two main forms are recognized. The lesser snow goose (long called Chen hyperborea hyperborea) breeds in the Arctic and migrates chiefly to California and Japan. The greater snow goose (long called C.h. atlantica) breeds in northwestern Greenland and nearby islands and winters on the east coast of the United States from Chesapeake Bay to North Carolina, especially at Pea Island. The blue goose (long separated as C. caerulescens) has bluish gray body plumage, with white head and neck and, sometimes, white breast and belly. It breeds in the eastern part of the range of the lesser snow goose and winters on the U.S. Gulf Coast, chiefly in Louisiana. Most biologists believe the blue goose is actually a dark colour phase (colour morph) of the lesser snow goosenot a separate species. Some ornithologists believe that the white birds (lesser snow geese) constitute a subspecies (C.c. hyperborea) of the blue. Adding to the confusion, many ornithologists (especially in Europe) classify all these birds in the so-called gray goose genus, Anser, considering Chen obsolete.