SNOW GOOSE. 565 
This species is rare both in Massachusetts and South Carolina, al- 
though it passes over both these States in considerable numbers, and 
in the latter some have been known to alight among the common do- 
mestic Geese, and to have remained several days with them. My friend 
Dr Bacuman, of Charleston, South Carolina, kept a male Snow Goose 
several years along with his tame Geese. He had received it from a 
friend while it was in its grey plumage, and the following spring it be- 
came white. It had been procured in the autumn, and proved to be a 
male. In afew days it became very gentle, and for several years it 
mated with a common Goose; but the eggs produced by the latter 
never hatched. The Snow Goose was in the habit of daily frequent- 
ing a mill-pond in the vicinity, and returning regularly at night along 
with the rest; but in the beginning of each spring it occasioned much 
trouble. It then continually raised its head and wings, and attempted 
to fly off ; but finding this impossible, it seemed anxious to perform its 
long journey on foot, and it was several times overtaken and brought 
back, after it had proceeded more than a mile, having crossed fences and 
plantations in a direct course northward. This propensity cost it its 
life: it had proceeded as far as the banks of the Cooper River, when 
it was shot by a person who supposed it to be a wild bird. 
In the latter part of the autumn of 1832, whilst I was walking with 
my wife, in the neighbourhood of Boston in Massachusetts, I observed 
on the road a young Snow Goose in a beautiful state of plumage, and 
after making some inquiries, found its owner, who was a gardener. He 
would not part with it for any price offered. Some weeks after, a 
friend called one morning, and told me that this gardener had sent his 
Snow Goose to town, and that it would be sold by auction that day. 
I desired my friend to attend the sale, which he did ; and before a few 
hours had elapsed, the bird was in my possession, having been obtained 
for 75 cents! We kept this Goose several months in a small yard at 
the house where we boarded, along with the young of the Sand-hill 
Crane, Grus Americana. It was fed on leaves and thin stalks of cab- 
bage, bread, and other vegetable substances. When the spring ap- 
proached, it exhibited great restlessness, seeming anxious to remove 
northward, as was the case with Dr Bacuman’s bird. Although the 
- gardener had kept it four years, it was not white, but had the lower 
part of the neck and the greater portion of the back, of a dark bluish 
tint, as represented in the plate. It died before we left Boston, to the 
