SNOW GOOSE. 



54^^ 



Size. 



Ankr Gtiiidinis. SchneeGans. Sc&%ve>!ci/e/t Si/e/. zi^.—P&il. Traa/.lxii. ^j^, 477. Skow, 

 Anfer Hyperboreus, Pal/as Spicil, ZooL fafc. vi. 26. — Latham, iii. 

 White Brant, Lauu/on, 147. 



T>^ With an elevated bill J upper mandible fcarlet j lower .whitifli : 

 forehead yellowifli : head, neck, and body, of a fnowy white- 

 nefs : primaries white at the bottoms, black to the tips : lefTer co- 

 verts ufually cinereous, with dufky tips : legs and feet deep red. 

 The young Geefe are blue, and do not attain their proper colors in 

 lefs than a year. Length two feet eight inches. Extent three 

 feet and a half. Weight between five and fix pounds. 



This fpecies is common to the north of Ajia, and to North Placb, 



America, They appear in flights about Severn river in Hudfon's 

 Bay, in the middle of May, on their way northward ; return in 

 the beginning of September with their young, and flay about the 

 fettlement a fortnight; and proceed, about the tenth of Oilober, 

 flying very high, fouthward to pafs the winter. They come in flocks 

 of thoufands ; quite cover the country j rife in clouds, and with an 

 amazing noife. They vifit Carolina * in vafl: flocks ; and feed on Fooo> 



the roots of fedge and grafs, which they tear up like hogs. It ufed 

 to be a common praftice in that country, to burn a piece of a 

 marfli, which enticed the Geefe to come there, as they could thea 

 more readily get at the roots ; which gave the fportfman opportunity 

 of killing as many as he pleafed. In Hudfon's Bay thoufands are an- 

 nually flioc by the Indians for the ufe of the fettlement ; and are 

 efleemed excellent meat. 



They arrive in the earliefl: fpring, before any other fpecies of Mi a rat ions. 

 Water-fowl, in. immenfe flights^ firfl: about the river Kolyma. Their 



* Lanxj/oii, i\j.—^ere. The fort of whitrfh fowl mentioned by Mr. Lanxifin, 

 p. 150, which he calls Bull-necks, of the fize of a Brant, which come to Carolina 

 after Chrijimas, and frequent the rivers : are excellent meat ; but are very Ihy, and 

 fuch good divers, as not to be fliot without difficulty J^ 



courfe 



