552 ANSER HYPERBOREUS, SNOW GOOSE. 



black space aloug the commissures of the bill. When unmolested this 

 bird was as unmindful of a person as the tame Geese, and it required 

 chase to make it endeavor to escape, which it always did by rising 

 easily from the ground, and flying to the river — sometimes half a mile 

 distant. The specimen was in fine plumage and excellent condition, 

 and made a very clean, perfect specimen, when prepared. It measured 

 as follows: Length, 27 inches; extent, 57; wing, 17; culmen, 2.25; tar- 

 sus, 2; middle toe, 1.75. Its weight was 5J lbs. Bill deep flesh-color, the 

 upper mandible with a salmon-colored tinge, and the lower with a rosy- 

 pink flush; the terminal unguis nearly white; the commissures inclose 

 an elongate oval space of deep black ; iris very dark brown ; eyelids 

 greenish- white; tarsi and toes purple-lake, the soles of the feet diiigj' 

 I^aples-yellow. A remarkable feature of this specimen is that one or 

 two of the primaries are entirely pure white, while most of the remain- 

 ing ones have longitudinal spaces, of greater or less extent, on the inner 

 webs. The question arises, whether this is merely a case of partial albin- 

 ism, or a change produced by the modified condition of its food and 

 mode of life." 



"The bill of this bird," says Wilson, "is singularly curious. The 

 edges of the upper and lower gibbosities hav^e each twenty-three 

 indentations, or strong teeth, on each side; the inside, or concavity of 

 the upper mandible, has also seven lateral rows of strong projecting 

 teeth, and the tongue, which is horny at the extremity, is armed on 

 each side with thirteen long and sharp, bony teeth, placed like those of 

 a saw, with their points directed backward ; the tongue, turned up and 

 viewed on its lower side, looks very much like a human finger with its 

 nail. This conformation of the mandibles, exposing two rows of strong 

 teeth, has probably given rise to the epithet ' Laughing,' bestowed on 

 one of its varieties, though it might, with as much propriety, be named 

 the 'Grinning Goose.'" ISfo one familiar with the appearance of the 

 Snow Goose will fail to recognize the ai)tness of the suggestion with 

 which Wilson concludes his truthful, if not quite technically accurate, 

 description, conveying an idea of the bird's queer physiognomy. Ihe 

 design and use of the conspicuous corneous lamellte (common to other 

 Geese, but remarkably developed in this one) are evident, when we 

 know the bird's food and its manner of procuring it. It feeds upon 

 reeds, grasses, and other herbs, which it forcibly pulls up by the roots, 

 or twitches in two. The shape and singular armature of the bill admir- 

 ably adapt it for seizing and retaining firm hold of yielding plant-stems. 

 The bird's " horrible smile," then, so far from being a sign of vapid antl 

 inane character, is at once the mark and the means of the praiseworthy 

 industry by which it gains an honest livelihood. 



Various kinds of ordinary grass form a large part of this bird's food, 

 at least during their winter residence in the United States. They 

 gather it precisely as tame Geese are wont to do. Flocks alight upon a 

 meadow or plain, and pass over the ground in broken array, cropping to 

 either side as they go, with the peculiar tweak of the bill and quick jerk 

 of the neck familiar to all who have watched the barn-yard birds when 

 similarly engaged. The short, turfy grasses appear to be highly relished ; 

 and this explains the frequent presence of the birds in fields at a dis- 

 tance from water. They also eat the bulbous roots and soft succulent 

 culms of aquatic plants, and in securing these the tooth-like processes 

 of the bill are brought into special service. Wilson again says that, 

 when thus feeding upon reeds, " they tear them up like hogs;" a ques- 

 tionable comparison, however, for the birds pull up the plants instead 

 of pushing or "rooting" them up. The Geese, I think, also feed largely 



