346 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



western side of America, as at Aoonalashka and Kam- 

 tschatka^ as well as in the estuary of the Oregon where they 

 were seen by Lewis and Clarke. They are very abundant 

 in Siberia, and the natives often take them in nets by means 

 of rude decoys. In that frozen climate they afford a great 

 article of subsistence ; each family killing thousands in a 

 season, which are laid up in bulk, in holes in the earth, and 

 made use of as occasion requires. 



The length of the Snow Goose is about 32 inches ; the wings IG^^ 

 inches or upwards j the bill above 2 inches 3 lines ; tarsus 3 inches. 

 General color white. Quills pitch black ; their shafts white towards 

 the base. Head glossed with ferruginous. Irids dark hair-brown. 

 Bill, feet, and orbits aurora-red ; nails of both mandibles livid. The 

 ferruginous tint occupies various portions of the head on different 

 individuals, and in some extends to the neck and middle of the 

 belly. 



The immahire bird has a ievv feathers on the crown and nape, the 

 fore part of the back, ends of the scapulars, some of their coverts, 

 and the outer webs of the tail feathers greyish-brown, all tipped, 

 and more or less edged, with white. Tertiaries, and the rest of the 

 plumage as in the old bird. Some individuals deviate from the full 

 plumage merely in the bastard wing and primary coverts retaining 

 tlieir grey color ; while in very young birds, part of the under 

 plumage is also greyish-brown. — The bill of the adult is shaped 

 much like that of Jl. albifrons. 



WHITE-FRONTED, or LAUGHING GOOSE. 



(Anser albifrons, Bechst. Bonap. Synops. No. 316. Temm. Man, 

 d'Orn. ii. p. 821. Richard. North. Zool. ii. p. 466. Anas albi- 

 frons, Gmel. Lath. Ind. sp. 27. White-Fronted Goose, Penn. 

 Arct. Zool. ii. No. 476. Laughing Goose, Edwards. Glean, t. 

 153. L'oie Rieuse, Bltf. Ois. ix. p. 81.) 



Sp. Charact. — Brownish, beneath white varied with black j 

 frontlet and throat white, margined with blackish ; bill and feet 

 oranofe ; nails whitish. 



