72 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



Permission being given, Mr. Cassin made the following communica- 

 tion in reference to a new species of Goose from Arctic America. 



Mr. Cassin called attention to a series of specimens of Geese from Arctic 

 America, and especially to fragments of a specimen from Great Slave Lake, 

 recently received at the Smithsonian Institution, and by the officers of that 

 Institution kindly sent to him for examination. These fragments include 

 head, wings, tail and legs, and were accompanied by one nearly complete 

 skin, which is now exhibited in the Smithsonian Museum, and clearly re- 

 present a species not before known to naturalists, but are undoubtedly the 

 " Horned Wavey" described by Hearne in Journey to the Northern Ocean, p. 

 442, (Quarto ed. London, 1795; Octavo ed., p. 444, Dublin, 1796.) This 

 species has never again been noticed from the time of Hearne until the receipt 

 of the present specimens from Mr. Robert Kennicott, an enterprising young 

 naturalist, now in the northern regions of British America, but has been 

 constantly insisted on as a valid species in his letters to the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution by Mr. Bernard R. Ross, an enthusiastic naturalist and careful ob- 

 server in the service of the Hudson Bay Company. 



The " Horned Wavey" is nearly allied to and of the same colors as the two 

 other species of northern Geese now before the Academy, which are Anser hy- 

 perboreus and albatus, but is readily to be distinguished from either by its 

 much smaller size and the numerous caruncles on the bill near its base. 

 These characters are very nearly as given by Hearne, and in all respects his 

 description is accurate and sufficient to determine the identity of the species, 

 and that it is different from any other. 



Mr. C. here read Hearne's description : 



"Horned Wavey. This delicate and diminutive species of the Goose is not 

 much larger than the Mallard Duck. Its plumage is delicately white, except 

 the quill feathers, which are black. The bill is not more than an inch long, 

 and at the base is studded around with little knobs about the size of peas, but more 

 remarkably so in the males. Both the bill and feet are of the same color 

 with those of the Snow Goose. 



"This species is very scarce at Chui-chill river, and I believe are never 

 found at any of the Southern settlements ; but about two or three hundred 

 miles to the northwest of Churchill I have seen them in as large flocks as the 

 common Wavey or Snow Goose. The flesh of this bird is exceedingly deli- 

 cate ; but they are so small, that when I was on my journey to the North, I 

 eat two of them one night for supper. I do not find this bird described by my 

 worthy friend, Mr. Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology. Probably a specimen of it 

 was not sent home, for the person that commanded at Prince of Wales' Fort, 

 at the time the collection was making, did not pay any attention to it." 

 (Hearne's Journey to the Northern Ocean, quarto, p. 442 ; octavo, p. 444, 5.) 



In the Proceedings of this Academy for February, 1856, (vol. viii. p. 41,) 

 is a notice of three species of North American Goose which had previously 

 been confounded under the name of Anser hyperboreus, and further observa- 

 tions have tended more fully to confirm my opinion thei*e expressed. The 

 present is a third species of the white geese inhabiting the hyperborean re- 

 gions of America, for which I propose the name of Anser Rossii at the sugges- 

 tion of Prof. Baird of the Smithsonian Institution. 



In addition to the three species which are white, a fourth I have only seen 

 with the head white. The last is the Anser cairulescens, (Linnseus.) The four 

 species may be characterized as follows : 



1. Anser hyperboreus, Pallas. 



Anser hyperboreus, Pall. Spic. Zool. i. p. 25 (1769.) 

 Large, about the size of Bernicla canadensis, total length about 31 inches, 

 wing 18^, tail 6 h, bill along the culmen from tip to frontal feathers 2 J, tarsus 

 3| inches. Entire plumage in adult, white, except ends of primary quills which 



[March, 



