SPECIES 2. ANAS HYPERBOREA. 



SNOW GOOSE. 

 [Plate LX VIII. Fig. 5, Male.'] 



VOya de Neige, BRISS. vi, p. 288. 10. White Brant, LAWSON'S 

 Carolina, p. l57.Jlrct. Zool. JVo. 477. Phil. Trans. 62, p. 

 413. LATH. Syn. 111,4?. 445. PEALE'S Museum, No. 2635.* 



THIS bird is particularly deserving of the further investiga- 

 tion of naturalists; for, if I do not greatly mistake, English wri- 

 ters have, from the various appearances which this species as- 

 sumes 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.t 



This species, called on the seacoast the Red Goose, arrives 

 in the river Delaware from the north, early in November, some- 

 times in considerable 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 they 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, particu- 



hyperborea, GMEL. Syst. i, p. 504, JVb. 54. Ind. Orn. p. 837, JVb. 14. 

 TEMM. J*fan. tfQrn.p. 816. 



f This conjecture of our author is partly erroneous. The Snow Goose 

 and the Blue-winged Goose are synonymous; but the other two named are 

 distinct species, the characters of which are well denned by late ornitholo- 

 gists. 



