614 



ANSER CANADENSIS. THE CANADA GOOSE. 



CRAVAT GOOSE. 



Anas Canadensis. Linn. Syst. Nat. I. 198. 



Anas Canadensis. Lath. Ind. Ornith. II. 852. 



Anser Canadensis. Flem. Brit. Anim. 128. 



Cygnus Canadensis. Canada Swan. Jen. Brit. Vert. An. 227. 



Canada Goose. Anser Canadensis. Audub. Orn. Biogr. III. 1 ; V. 607. 



Anser Canadensis. Bonap. Comp. List. 55. 



Male about forty-two inches long ; bill and feet black ; 

 head and two-thirds of the neck, all round, glossy black, as are 

 the rump and tail feathers ; a broad band of ichite across the 

 throat, ascending to behind the eyes ; tipper parts greyish- 

 brown ; wing-coverts ash-grey ; all the feathers margined 

 with pale brown ; lower parts greyish-ivhite ; sides pale 

 brownish-grey ; the feathers ma?*gined with white ; abdomen 

 pure white. 



This species, which in its form, and especially in the 

 elongation of its neck, somewhat resembles the Swans, and in 

 its colouring the Bernicles, is admitted into the British Fauna 

 with hesitation, because, as is alleged, many perfectly wild 

 individuals have been seen, and some shot, in various parts 

 of England, where, however, individuals are often kept in a 

 tame or semi-domesticated state. Its native country is North 

 America; and as many birds of that country occasionally 

 visit Britain, the Canada Goose may come at times as a 

 straggler, or winter visitant. 



It is of larger size than the species already described ; with 

 the body bulky, rather elongated, and somewhat depressed ; 

 the neck long and slender ; the head rather small, oblong, 

 compressed ; the bill shorter than the head, rather higher 

 than broad at the base, depressed toward the end, rounded at 



