34< SNOW GOOSI:. 



neck, with the belly, become white, and the wings 

 variegated. Temminck says of two young specimens, 

 killed in Europe, that they had the head and the 

 upper part of the neck pure white : the lower part of 

 the neck, the breast, and back of an ashy-violet, with 

 all the feathers tipped with clear brown : the vving- 

 coverts were pure ash-colour : the abdomen and vent 

 whitish, varied with brown feathers : the angle of the 

 beak and the edges of the mandible black : the legs 

 brown. 



These birds inhabit the regions of the Arctic 

 Circle, occasionally migrating to the more temperate 

 climates of Prussia, Austria, Hudson's Bay, and the 

 United States of America. They arrive in the river 

 Delaware from the north early in November, some- 

 times in considerable flocks, and are very noisy : they 

 feed on the roots of reeds : their ilesh is esteemed 

 excellent, and in Siberia they form an essential article 

 of subsistence to the natives, each family, it is said, 

 preserving thousands annually, which, after being 

 plucked and gutted, are thrown in heaps into holes 

 dug for that purpose, and covered only with earth: 

 the mould freezes, and forms over them an arch; and 

 whenever the family have occasion to open one of 

 these magazines, they find them sweet. 



The method adopted by the Siberians to obtain 

 these birds is highly curious : according to the account 

 furnished by Pennant, they place near the banks of 

 the rivers a great net in a straight line ; or else form 

 a hovel of skins sewed together: this done, one of 

 the company dresses himself in the skin of a white 

 reindeer, advances towards the flock of Geese, and 



