ANATID.E THE SWANS, GEESE, AND DUCKS. Ill 



Anser ccerulescens VIEILL. Ene. Meth. 1. 1823, 115. BAIBD. Cat N. Am. B. 1859, No. 



564.-COUES, Key. 1872, 282; Check List, 1873, No. 479; Birds N. W. 1874, 553. 



Chen ccerulescens RIDGW. Proc. U. S.Nat. Mus.. iii, 1880. 202; Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, 



No. 590;Man. N. Am B. 1887, 115. COUES, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, No. 694. B. B. & 



B. Water B. N. Am. i, 188, 436.-A. O. U. Check List. 1886, p. 351, hypthet. list, No. 8. 



Anser hyperboreus (supposed young) STEPHENS, Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii, ii, 1824, 33. 



BAiED.B.N.Am. 1858, 760. 



HAS, Interior of North America, east of Rocky Mountains, breeding in the interior of 

 Labrador ; migrating south, in winter through the Mississippi Valley, occasionally along 

 the Atlantic coast also. 



Sp. CHAB. Adult: Head and upper half of the neck white, or mostly white, the former 

 frequently washed with orange-rufous anteriorly; lower neck and body grayish brown, the 

 feathers bordered terminally with paler, these pale edgings, however, nearly obsolete on 

 the neck, where the tint is darker, and joins irregularly against the white above it. Bump 

 and wings plain pearl-gray or bluish cinereous (the former sometimes white), in striking 

 contrast to the deep grayish brown of the scapulars, sides, etc. ; that of the rump fading 

 into white on the upper tail-coverts, and that of the greater coverts edged externally with 

 the same. Primaries black, fading basally into hoary gray; secondaries deep black, nar- 

 rowly edged with white; tail deep ash-gray, the feathers distinctly bordered wi h white 

 Bill reddish, the commissural space black; feet reddish, Young: Very similar, but the 

 chin, only, white, the rest of the head and neck being uniform dark grayish brown or brown- 

 ish slate, like the breast, only daiker in shi.de; body more cinereous than in the adult, the 

 pale tips to the nearly truncated contour feathers being obsolete. Bump, wings, and tail 

 as in the adult. Bill and feet blackish. Downy young, not seen. 



Total length, about 30.00 inches; wing, 15.00-17.00; culmen, 2.10-2.30: tarsus, 3.00-3.30; mid- 

 dle toe, 2.15-2.50. 



The chief variation in the plumage of adults of this species 

 consists in the extent and continuity of the white of the neck. 

 This is usually more or less broken, the dusky of the lower por- 

 tion running upwards in irregular spots or projections; it ex- 

 tends highest on the nape, where it sometimes reaches to the 

 crown. The bright orange-rufous tinge to the anterior portion 

 of the head, being an adventitious stain, is frequently entirely ab- 

 sent. The color of the abdomen also varies from nearly pure 

 white to a tint hardly paler than the breast ; the rump is also 

 sometimes, but rarely, entirely white, while occasionally white 

 feathers are irregularly interspersed among the dark feathers of 

 the body. 



In both the adult and young stages of this goose the plumage 

 is so very distinct from that of C. hyperborea that there is no 

 occasion for confounding the two when the points of distinction 

 are understood. We are unable, however, to find the slightest 

 difference in the details of form or in proportions a fact which 

 suggests the mere possibility of their being white and colored 

 phases of the same species, as in some Herons; but we do not 



