482 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



ANSER HYPERBOREUS. Pallas. 

 The Snow Goose. 



Anser hyperboreus, Pallas. Spic. Zool., VI. (1767) 25. Nutt. Man., II. 344. 

 \ud. Orn. Biog., IV. (1838) 562. Jb., Birds Am., VI. (1843) 212. 

 Anas hyperborea. Gm., I. 504. Wils. Am. Orn., VIII. (1814) 76. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Adult. Bill and legs red; color pure- white; primary quills black towards the 

 end. silvery-bluish gray towards the base, where the shafts are white ; the spurious 

 quills are also bluish; inside of wings, except primary quills, white; immature birds 

 have the head washed with rusty. 



Young. Head and upper part of neck white ; lower part of neck to the wings 

 dark-brown, passing on the sides of body into a more ashy shade ; rest of under 

 parts, concealed portions of the back, rump, and upper coverts, white ; the entire 

 scapular and scapular region is ashy-brown, each feather with faint reddish-brown 

 margin ; the upper surface of the wing is of a clear silvery-ash, but passing into dark- 

 brown on the ends of the quills ; the coverts, secondaries, tertials, and scapulars, 

 edged with white ; iris light-brown. 



Length, about thirty inches; wing, sixteen and forty one-hundredths ; tarsus, 

 three and twelve one-hundredths ; commissure, two and ten one-hundredths inches. 



This is another rare species on our New-England sea 

 coast. As a general thing, it is only seen during the winter ; 

 but we have, in the Massachusetts State Cabinet, a fine speci- 

 men that was taken in Boston Harbor, in July, 1863. It is 

 strictly a northern species,, and hardly belongs to our fauna. 



Dr. Richardson, in describing its breeding habits, says, 

 " It breeds in the barren grounds of Arctic America, in 

 great numbers. The eggs, of a yellowish-white color and 

 regularly ovate form, are a little larger than those of the 

 Eider Duck; their length being three inches, and their 

 greatest breadth two. The young fly in August ; and, by 

 the middle of September, all have departed to the south- 

 ward. The Snow Goose feeds on rushes, insects, and in 

 autumn on berries, particularly those of the Umpetrum 

 nigrum." 



BERNICLA, STEPHENS. 



Sernicla, STEPHENS, Shaw's Gen. Zool., XII. (1824) 45. (Type Anas ber- 

 nicla, L.) 



Bill about as long as head or shorter; the commissure nearly straight; the teeth 

 of upper mandible concealed, except perhaps at the base ; bill and legs black. 



