174 ANAS HYPERBOREA. 



255. ANAS HYPERBOREA. YOUNG OF THE SNOW GOOSE. 

 WILSON, PLATE LXIX. FIG. V. 



THE full plumaged perfect male bird of this species 

 has already been described in the preceding article, 

 and I now hazard a conjecture, founded on the best 

 examination I could make of the young bird, comparing 

 it with the descriptions of the different accounts, that 

 the whole of them have been taken from the various 

 individuals of the present, in a greater or lesser degree 

 of approach to its true and perfect colours, &c. 



These birds pass along our coasts, and settle in our 

 rivers, every autumn ; among thirty or forty, there are 

 seldom more than six or eight pure white, or old birds. 

 The rest vary so much, that no two are exactly alike ; 

 yet all bear the most evident marks, in the particular 

 structure of their bills, &c. of being the same identical 

 species. A gradual change so great, as from a bird of 

 tnis colour to one of pure white, must necessarily 

 produce a number of varieties, or differences in the 

 appearance of the plumage, but the form of the bill and 

 legs remains the same, and any peculiarity in either is 

 the surest mean we have to detect a species under all 

 its various appearances. It is therefore to be regretted, 

 that authors have paid so little attention to the singular 

 conformation of the bill ; for neither that nor the internal 

 peculiarities are at all mentioned. 



The length of the bird was twenty-eight inches; 

 extent, four feet eight inches ; bill, gibbous at the sides 

 both above and below, exposing the teeth of the upper 

 and lower mandibles, and furnished with a nail at the 

 tip 'on both ; the whole being of a light reddish purple, 

 or pale lake, except the gibbosity, which is black, and 

 the two nails, which are of a pale light blue ; nostril, 

 pervious, an oblong slit, placed nearly in the middle 

 of the upper mandible ; irides, dark brown ; whole 

 head, and half of the neck, white ; rest of the neck 



