CHEN ALBATUS. 



(Cassin's Snow-Goose.) 



By Mr. G. D. ROWLEY. 



(Plate XLVII.) 



By the kindness of Mr. Howard Saunders^ his specimen of this Goose has 

 been added to my collection. To his discovery we are indebted that it and 

 the companion bird did not escape notice. Mr. Dresser has given a fine 

 plate of the male in the ' Birds of Europe ' (part xix.), w^hich he has 

 contrasted with an adult female of Chen hyperboreus, Boie. 



This bird, with the male now in Mr. Dresser's museum, were both shot 

 by a boy on the Lake of Tacumshane, on the south coast of Wexford, 

 Ireland, in November 1871 ; and the present illustration by Mr. Keulemans, 

 together with that in Mr. Dresser's w^ork, enable the public to see both these 

 interesting specimens — the first ever known to have been taken in Great 

 Britain and Ireland, but abundant in some other parts of the world. 



Spencer F. Baird says (^ Birds of North America,' p. 761) : — ^' I have 

 not the means of testing the validity of Mr. Cassin's new Anser alhatus, which 

 is said to difi^er from the common species in smaller size, shorter bill, &c. 

 In the very great variations of size and proportions in the Geese, / can 

 scarcely believe that the grounds of distinction as announced are sufficient in the 

 present case to make two species. . . . 



" The name ccerulescens has priority of date over hyperboreus, and (if the 

 species are the same) should be used, but for the fact that the adult bird is 

 not bluish, but white, thus conveying a false impression respecting it." 



VOL. II. o 



