Atlantic. The four specimens alluded to, which are a pair of adults and a pair of young, are 



now in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy." In the Hepburn collection at Cambridge 



are three specimens of this Goose from North-west America, sent as Chen hyperboreus, but 



which, when sent up to London for examination by Mr. Howard Saunders (on which occasion I 



also had the opportunity of examining them), proved to be the present species. 



Two examples having been obtained in Ireland in November 1871, enable me to include this 



Goose in the present work. Mr. Howard Saunders, who chronicled this occurrence, and exhibited 



the two specimens (one of which is in his, and the other in my collection) at a meeting of the 



Zoological Society in 1872, writes as follows: — "On the 9th of November last my attention was 



called to two Geese in Leadenhall Market ; and subsequently I purchased them, one for Mr. K. B. 



Sharpe, and the other for myself. They had both been recently shot, the blood and slime being 



still moist in the wounds, bill, and nostrils. The vendor, with whom I have dealt for some years, 



did not pretend to know any thing about the locality where they were obtained, but referred me 



to the wholesale dealer from whom he had purchased them. This dealer, Mr. Miller, at once 



showed me the invoice, specifying so many head of poultry and ' two birds,' forwarded to him 



three days previously by a poultry-dealer named Ellen Neill, of the Faythe, Wexford, Ireland. 



The Faythe is a suburb where the wild-fowl shooters reside ; and as it was certain that the birds 



had not been frozen, or sent over in ice, there seemed to be no reason to doubt that they had 



really been killed in that district. Of course I at once wrote for particulars, but failed to elicit 



any direct reply. I subsequently gave the necessary details to Sir Victor Brooke, who kindly 



took a great interest in the matter, and, on the occasion of my reading this paper, has put into 



my hand a letter just received ; and I am thus enabled to quote in its proper place this most 



valuable corroborative evidence : — 



" ' Wexford, March 14th, 1872. 



" ' I have succeeded in tracing the Geese referred to. They were shot by a boy on the lake of Tacum- 



shane, on the south coast of this county, and were the only ones which appeared there ; but there was a third 



one subsequently shot in Wexford harbour. So far as I have been able to learn, no others like them have been 



seen here ; but I shall try and find out more about this. They had been swimming about on the lake (or 



lough) for some days before they were shot; and the lake adjoins the sea, from which it is only separated by 



a narrow ridge of sand, and it would probably be one of the first places birds would make if coming from 



seaward. I am sorry for the delay in replying to your letters; but it was only to-day I was able to do so, as 



Mrs. Neill is only a poultry-dealer, and not particular in inquiring where the birds she buys come from. 



" ' Yours, &c. (Signed) Sim Little.' 



" The stomachs of these birds contained nothing but a little grit, some of which I have pre- 

 served. On dissection they proved to be male and female, and from their plumage are evidently 

 birds of the year. The sternum of each, and the trachea of the female, have been carefully pre- 

 served, the trachea of the male having been shattered by shot We supposed, at the time, 



that these were Anser hyperboreus, Pallas, of which the occurrence in Europe has already been 

 recorded ; but on comparing them with specimens in the British Museum, they appeared to be 

 nearly as much too small for that species as they were too large for A. rossii, Baird. Besides, the 

 latter is still further distinguished by the caruncles at the base of the bill, which have induced 

 Mr. D. G. Elliot to give it the new generic name of Eocanthemops. Mr. Elliot having enjoyed 

 the advantage of examining the type specimen of Anser albatus, Cassin, which he has figured in 



