SNOW GOOSE. 277 



pair ; and was consequently joked at by the late Mr. John 

 Thompson, the superintendent of Lord Derby's menagerie, 

 who said that he had purchased three of them while travel- 

 ling in Ireland, out of a flock of Common Geese running on 

 a green. 



The Snow Goose has not yet been obtained in Scotland 

 or England, but the Editor has been informed by the Kev. 

 H. A. Macpherson that a bird of this species was observed 

 by himself and others during the early part of the autumn 

 of 1884 on the coast of Cumberland. The ' Cream-coloured 

 Goose' figured by Meyer in his "British Birds" is evidently 

 a mere albino, the primaries being of a creamy-white like 

 the rest of the body, whereas they are black in the present 

 species. 



The true home of the Snow Goose is in the Nearctic region ; 

 and Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgvvay, in their ' Birds of 

 North America,' write as follows: — " There can be little ques- 

 tion that two forms of the Snow Goose exist in North America, 

 distinguished by their size and also their geographical dis- 

 tribution. The smaller, to which the name hyperhoreus 

 properly belongs, and of which albatus, Cassin, is a pure 

 synonym, occurs throughout the north-western portions of 

 the continent (being the only one known to breed in Alaska), 

 and in winter migrates over the whole of the country from 

 the Pacific coast to the Mississippi valley. The other, with 

 larger general size and disproportionately heavier bill, breeds 

 in the region about Hudson's Bay, and in winter migrates 

 southward, chiefly along the Atlantic coast. This bird is the 

 Anas niralis of Forster (1772), and if it is to be recognized 

 as a race, as we think it ought, it should be called Chen 

 (or Anser) hyperhoreus nivalis." It is clear that the race 

 obtained in the British Islands is the smaller one ; but as 

 it is impossible to say to which form are to be attributed 

 the Snow Geese recorded from time to time in the Old 

 World under the name of Anser hypoyhoveus, the Editor 

 must treat them under one name in the following sketch of 

 their distribution. 



Mr. Gfitke reports from Heligoland that on the 10th ^lay. 



