HUTCHINS'S GOOSE. 527 



fifteen months ; and this will account in a great measure for the miserable 

 plight in which the specimen first came into your hands. I will dispose 

 of it according to your wishes, and am most happy to place it in the 

 hands of one who knows so well how to appreciate the interesting asso- 

 ciations connected with it. 



" These birds arrived in flocks about the middle of June, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Felix Harbour, and soon dispersed in pairs to their breeding 

 place. At Igloolik, the only place where we had before met with them, 

 their nests were found in the marshes near the sea ; but on this occasion 

 several pairs constructed their nests on a ledge of rock near the foot of a 

 high precipice ; immediately above them the Dovekies, Loons, several 

 species of Gulls, and near its summit, the Jer-Falcon and Raven, built 

 their nests. 



" From three to four eggs were found in each nest, of a pure white, and 

 of an oval form, measuring 3.1 inches by 2.1, and weighing from 1800 to 

 2000 grains. 



" The female bird is smaller than the male. To the measurements given 

 by Dr Richardson, which are very accurate, we may add that its extent 

 of wings is fifty inches, and that it averages about four pounds and a half 

 of weight. Its flesh is of a most exquisite flavour." 



Anser Hutchinsii, Hutchins's Barnacle Goose, Swains, and Richards. Fauna 

 Bor. Amer. part ii. p. 470. 



Adult. Plate CCLXXVII. 



Bill shorter than the head, higher than broad at the base, somewhat 

 conical, depressed towards the end, rounded at the tip. Upper mandible 

 with the dorsal line sloping, the ridge slightly flattened at the base, con- 

 vex in the rest of its extent, the sides sloping, the edges soft, the oblique 

 internal lamellae about thirty ; the unguis roundish, convex. Nasal groove 

 oblong, parallel to the ridge, filled by the soft membrane of the bill ; nos- 

 trils medial, lateral, longitudinal, narrow-elliptical , open, perviou s. Lower 

 mandible straight, with the angle very long, narrow and rounded, the 

 edges with about forty oblique lamellae. 



Head small, oblong, compressed. Neck long and very slender. Body 

 full. Feet short, stout, placed behind the centre of the body .• legs bare 

 a little above the joint ; tarsus short, a little compressed, covered all round 

 with anguUir scales, those behind smaller ; hind toe very small, with a 



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