&: 
' 
SNOW GOOSE. 585 
SNOW GOOSE.— ANAS HYPERBOREA. — Fie. 279, — Mare. 
Lioye de Neige, Briss. vi. p. 288, 10.— White Brant, Lawson's Carolina, p- 
157. — Arct. Zool. No. 477. — Phil. Trans. 62, p. 413. — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 445. 
— Peale’s Museum, No. 2635. _ ; 
ANSER HYPERBOREUS. —Bonapante. 
Anser hyperboreus, Bonap. Synop. p. 376.— North Zool. ii. p. 467. 
Tuis bird is particularly deserving of the further investigation of 
naturalists; for, if I do not greatly mistake, English writers have, from 
the various appearances which this species assumes in its progress to 
perfect plumage, formed no less than four different kinds, which they 
describe as so many distinct species, viz., the Snow Goose, the White- 
Jronted, or Laughing Goose, the Bean Goose, and the Blue-winged 
Goose, all of which, I have little doubt, will hereafter be found to be 
nothing more than perfect and imperfect individuals, male and female, 
of’ the Snow Goose, now before us. 
This species, called on the sea-coast the Red Goose, arrives in the 
River Delaware, from the north, early in November, sometimes in 
considerable flocks, and is, extremely noisy, their notes being shriller 
and more squeaking than those of the Canada, or Common Wild Goose, 
On their first arrival they make but a short stay, proceeding, as ‘the 
depth of winter approaches, farther to the south; but from the middle 
of February, until the breaking. up of the ice in March, they are fre- 
quently numerous along both shores of the Delaware, about and below 
Reedy Island, particularly near Old: Duck Creek, in the state of Del- 
aware. They feed on the roots of the reeds there, tearing them up 
from the marshes like hogs. Their flesh, like most others of their, 
tribe, that feed on vegetables, is excellent. 
' The Snow Goose is two feet eight inches in Iength, and five feet in 
extent; the bill is three inches in length, remarkably thick at the base, 
and rising high in the forehead, but becomes small and compressed at 
the extremity, where each mandible is furnished with a whitish round- 
ing nail; the color of the bill is a purplish carmine; the edges of the 
two' mandibles separate from each other,'in a singular manner, for 
their whole length, and this gibbosity is’ occupied by dentated rows, 
resembling teeth, these, and the parts adjoining, being of a blackish 
color; the whole plumage is of a snowy whiteness, with the exception, 
first, of the fore part of the head all round as far‘as the eyes, which is 
of a yellowish rust color, intermixed with white; and, second, the nine 
exterior quill-feathers, which are black, shafted with white, and white 
at the root; the coverts of these last, and also the ‘bastard wing, are 
sometimes of a pale ash color; the legs and feet, of the same purplish 
carmine as the bill; iris, dark hazel; the. tail is- rounded, and consists 
of sixteen feathers ; that, and the wings, when shut, nearly of a length. 
The bill of this bird is singularly curious; the edges of the upper 
and lower gibbosities have each twenty-three indentations, or strong 
teeth, on each side; the inside, or concavity of the upper mandible, 
has also seven lateral rows of strong, projecting teeth; and the tongue, 
which is horny at the extremity, is armed on each side with thirteen 
