411 



his ' Birds of North America,' vol. ii. p. 42, his suggestion that these birds might prove to be 

 young of that species carried with it great weight ; and subsequent careful and detailed exami- 

 nation and comparison with specimens kindly lent me by Professor Newton, out of the Hepburn 

 Collection, Cambridge University Museum, have convinced me not only that these two birds are 

 A. albatus, but that three of those from the Hepburn collection also belong to that species, and 

 not to A. hyperboreus 



" Since Cassin first considered that there was sufficient difference in these dimensions to 

 warrant a specific distinction, evidence strongly confirming his views has been received from 

 Mr. Bernard H. Ross (Nat. Hist. Rev. 1862, p. 286), who writes as follows: — 'There can be little 

 doubt of the existence of three species of Snow-Geese (exclusive of the Blue Wavey of Hudson's 

 Bay), as the Slave-Lake Indians have a different name for each kind. The first which arrives is 

 the middle-sized species, which I believe to be the A. albatus ; next comes the smallest sort, the 

 A. rossii ; and lastly the A. hyperboreus, which arrives when the trees are in leaf, and is called 

 the Yellow Wavey by the Indians.' It may be objected that savages and uneducated people 

 generally (though the failing is not confined to that class) are great species-makers. To this I 

 would reply that, in the present case, the Indians are clearly right about two out of the three 

 species, and the odds are therefore two to one in favour of their being correct as to the third. 



" The very fact of these birds having visited the milder climate of the shore washed by the 

 Gulf-stream, is an additional evidence of its distinctness as a species. Cassin lays especial stress 

 upon the fact of its habitat being confined to the extreme north-western portion of the American 

 continent ; and we know that on that coast the winter set in last year so early, and with such 

 unexampled severity, that of the thirty or forty whalers which frequent Behring's Straits, only 

 three managed to escape from the ice, while, on the other hand, I am not aware that the more 

 central and eastern portions have experienced a winter of any unusual rigour." 



The specimen figured is in immature plumage, and is the one killed at Wexford, now in my 

 collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser, 

 a, $ juv. Near Wexford, November 1861. 



E Mus. Hoivard Saunders, 

 a, $ juv. Near Wexford, November 1861. 



E Mus. Cantab. 



a,^. juv. Twelve-mile House, California {Hepburn), b, c, 6. Victoria, Vancouver's Island, January 18th, 

 1868 {Hepburn). 



3a 



