102 SNOW GOOSE. 



as it were by steps unwilling at its flow, adjusting their feathers con- 

 tinually, and dressing them with their fatty oil. They are then ready 

 for the first north or north-west wind that blows; and in twenty-four 

 hours the coast that had been resonant with their petulant and incessant 

 cries, and covered patch-like by their whitened squadrons, is silent 

 and deserted — a barren and frozen shore." 



The general plumage of the Snow Goose is white; forehead yellowish; 

 primaries white at their base, and black on their distal half. Iris hair 

 brown; beak, feet, and orbits red, the inferior mandible lighter, and 

 the nails of both blue. 



According to all modern, authors, the young is described as the 

 species the diagnosis of which will follow this. According, however, 

 to Mr. Barnston, as above quoted, the young are white, with their heads 

 stained with ferruginous. 



My figure of this bird is taken by kind permission from the beautiful 

 plate of Mr. Gould, in his Birds of Europe. 



Figures will also be found by Wilson, American Ornithology, vol. 

 viii, pi. 68, fig. 5; Naumann, Vogel Nacht., pi. 23, fig. 46. 



