lOi BLUE- WINGED GOOSE. 



main of Labrador, at the extremity of whicli peninsula it hatclies. 

 Of its winter haunts I cannot speak with certainty, not having seen 

 them either on the Columbian or on the north-west coast. It may 

 be that they adopt the sea-coast in a lower latitude as a home, and 

 are to be found towards Southern Mexico." 



''By an Indian report a great breeding-ground for the Blue AYavy 

 is the country lying in the interior from the north-east point of 

 Labrador — Cape Dudley Digges. Extensive swamps and impassable 

 bays prevail there; and the Geese incubate on the more solid and 

 driest tufts dispersed over the morass, safe from the approach of man 

 or other than a winged enemy." — ("Ibis," vol. ii, p. 257.) 



As to its European locality we may speak confidently of many 

 instances in which it has been called the youug of the Snow Goose. 

 Thus, the two specimens described by Temminck in his "Manuel," 

 vol. ii, p. 817, must be referred to this species, and in fact are so 

 mentioned by that author, but with the reservation that A. ccerulescens 

 is the young of A. hype^'boreus. 



The birds described in the following extract from Count Miihle's 

 work on the birds of Greece, are, in all probability, referable to this 

 species: — "Very rare among the Geese which come into Greece. 

 They were observed by my friend Lieut. Dillman, who shot in the 

 severe winter of 1841 three of these birds in the lagoons of Emirbey, 

 between Stilida and Thermorpylaj. Their white plumage was mixed 

 with greyish feathers, and their feet and beak were blue grey. These 

 specimens were we think the same as figure 3 of Naumann's 

 plate." 



The following is Brisson's description: — "Head and neck for nearly 

 all its length is white, the top of the head, however, is russet, and 

 the upper part of the neck is spotted with blackish; base of the neck, 

 the upper part of the back, the scapularies, the crop, and the flanks 

 are of a sombre brown; inferior part of the back, the rump, and 

 upper tail coverts of a bright bluish ash. The abdomen, the upper 

 part of the thighs, and under tail coverts are white, slightly shaded 

 with brown; all the wing coverts bluish ash; primaries blackish; 

 secondaries of the same colour, but are bordered with ash on their 

 external web, and at their tip. Tail composed of eighteen feathers, 

 of a dull brown, bordered with ash; the two middle slightly longer 

 than the laterals, which diminish gradually in length to the most 

 external, which is the shortest, which thus gives roundness to the end 

 of the tail; the beak, and that part of the thigh uncovered by feathers, 

 the tarsi, toes, and webs are red, with the claws black. It is found 

 in Hudson's Bay." 



