212 ANIMALS IN MENAGERIES. 



as already quoted. There seems some difference of 

 opinion, as to whether the young birds keep in flocks by 

 themselves, or whether they accompany their parents : 

 the former is stated to be the case by Dr. Richardson ; the 

 latter, which seems the most natural, is affirmed by Wil- 

 son, in the following passage : — " The snow geese pass 

 along our coasts, and settle in our rivers every autumn." 



In a flock of thirty or forty, there are seldom more 

 than six or eight pure white : the rest vary so muchj, 

 that no two are exactly alike; yet all bear the most evi- 

 dent marks, in the particular structure of their bills, of 

 being the same identical species. The following de- 

 scription is applicable to the generality of the young- 

 birds ; the greater or less degree of white upon the 

 plumage indicating the progress it has made towards 

 assuming the dress of the adult. The whole of the 

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

 breast, and back purplish brown, darkest where it joins 

 the white ; all the feathers being finely tipt with pale 

 brown : wing covers light cinereous, or grey ; the quills 

 black ; the tertials being edged with cinereous or light 

 blue, but black in the middle : rump like the wing 

 covers : tail covers white : tail blackish, edged and 

 broadly tipt with white : belly and vent white, mixed 

 with cinereous : feet and bill light reddish purple or 

 pale lake ; the latter having the tips light blue. 



The adult bird, as described by Wilson, is two feet 

 eight inches long ; the bill being three inches, remark- 

 ably thick at the base, high on the forehead, but small 

 and compressed at the extremity, the nail or thickened 

 tip being whitish ; the colour of the rest of the bill is 

 purplish carmine ; the edges of the two mandibles sepa- 

 rate from each other for their whole length, and this 

 gibbosity is occupied by dentated rows resembling teeth ; 

 these, and the parts adjoining, being of a blackish 

 colour. The whole plumage is of a snowy whiteness, 

 except the fore part of the head, which is of a yellowish 

 rust colour ; and the nine exterior quill feathers, which 

 are black, shafted with white, and white at the root : 



