413 



CHEN HYPEKBOKEUS. 



(SNOW-GOOSE.) 



Anser niveus, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 288 (1760). 



Anser hyperboreus, Pall. Spicil. Zool. i. pt. 6, p. 25 (1769). 



Anas nivalis, Forst. Phil. Trans, lxii. p. 413 (1772). 



Anas hyperborea, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 504 (1788). . 



Chen hyperborea, Boie, Isis, ii. p. 563 (1822). 



Tadorna nivea, (Briss.) C. L. Brehm, Vog. Deutschlands, p. 854 (1831). 



Chenalopex hyperboreus, Brehm, Naumannia, 1855, p. 297. 



Figurce notabiles. 

 Gould, B. of E. pi. 346 ; Wils. Am. Orn. viii. pi. 68. fig. 5 ; Aud. B. of Am. pi. 381. fig. 1. 



Ad. niveus : primariis nigris, ad basin cinereis, scapis albis versus apicem brunneis : secundariis albis, externis 

 vix brunneo notatis : alula spuria cinerea : rostro pedibusque rubris : iride brunnea. 



Adult. Pure white, excepting on the wings ; primaries black, excepting at the base, where they are dark 

 ashy grey ; shafts of the primaries white, merging into brown towards the tip ; secondaries white, the 

 outermost marked with brown ; spurious wing ashy grey ; legs red ; beak red, tooth of the bill white ; 

 iris brown. Total length 33 inches, culmen 2*50, wing 17, tail 6, tarsus 3. 



Young. Similar in plumage to the immature of Chen albatus. 



The Snow-Goose is more especially an inhabitant of the Northern Nearctic Begion, but is also 

 found in Europe, tolerably regularly, it appears, in the eastern portion of European Russia ; and 

 it likewise occurs in Asia, where, as recorded by Temminck and Schlegel, it has been met with 

 in Japan. 



It has not been observed in Great Britain ; but Professor Bernhardt includes it in his list of 

 the birds of Greenland, and it is possible that some day we may find a straggler or two so far out 

 of its regular route as on our coasts. It is true that Degland and Gerbe refer to a specimen 

 received from London by M. Oursel, of Havre ; but a careful examination of the specimen led to 

 the opinion that it had been mounted from a dried skin, and there appears to have been no 

 history with it as to the particulars of its capture. Nor has it occurred in Scandinavia ; but 

 Von Heuglin thinks it may probably be found on Novaja Zemlia. 



It is found tolerably regularly in Russia. Mr. Sabanaeff writes to me that it has been met 

 with in the Government of Jaroslaf, though not in that of Moscow, and therefore probably 

 passes along the Volga. The sportsmen in the Ural state that it is to be found in the Kaslinsk 

 Ural during migration; and Pallas records it from Cheliaba. There is no doubt about its 

 occurrence in Germany on several occasions. According to Naumann, Silesia* is the country 



* " Anser grandinis, Schwenkfeld, ex Silesia." 



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