Species II. ANAS HYPERBOREA. 



SNOW GOOSE. 



[Plate IVIII. Fig. 5, Male.] 



L'Oye de Neige, Briss. vi., p. 288, 10. — White Brant, Lawson's Carolina, p. 157.— 

 Arct. Zool. No. m.—Phil. Trans. 62, p. 413.— Lath. Sijn. iii., p. 445.* 



This bird is particularly deserving of the further investigation of 

 naturalists ; for, if I do not greatly mistake, English writers have, from 

 the various appearances which this species assumes in its progress to 

 perfect plumage, formed no less than four different kinds, which they 

 describe as so many distinct species, viz., the Snow Goose, the White 

 fronted or Laughing Goose, the Bean Goose, and the Blue-winged 

 Goose ; all of which, I have little doubt, will hereafter be found to be 

 nothing more than perfect and imperfect individuals, male and female, 

 of the Snow Goose, now before us.f 



This species, called on the seacoast the Ked Goose, arrives in the 

 river Delaware from the north, early in November, sometimes in con- 

 siderable flocks, and is extremely noisy, their notes being shriller and 

 more squeaking than those of the Canada, or common Wild Goose. On 

 their first arrival tliey make but a short stay, proceeding, as the depth 

 of winter approaches, farther to the south ; but from the middle of 

 February until the breaking up of the ice in March, they are frequently 

 numerous along both shores of the Delaware, about and below Reedy 

 Island, particularly near Old Duck Creek, in the state of Delaware. 

 They feed on the roots of the reeds there, tearing them up from the 

 marshes like hogs. Their flesh, like most others of their tribe that feed 

 on vegetables, is excellent. 



The Snow Goose is two feet eight inches in length, and five feet in 

 extent ; the bill is three inches in length, remarkably thick at the base, 

 and rising high in the forehead ; but becomes small and compressed at 

 the extremity, where each mandible is furnished with a whitish rounding 



* Anas hyperbnrea, Gmel. Syst. i., p. 504, No. 54. — Ind. Orn. p. 837, No. 14. — 

 Temm. Man. d^ Orn. p. 816. 



t This conjecture of our author is partly erroneous. The Snow Goose and the 

 Blue-winj^ed Goose are synonymous ; but the other two named are distinct species, 

 the characters of which are well defined by late ornithologists. 



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