138 SNOW GOOSE. 



occurs accidentally in Prussia and Austria, but never 

 in Holland; and Naumann includes it in his work on 

 the "Birds of Germany." A reported instance of its 

 capture in England is mentioned by Dcgland, but it 

 appears that M. Hardy, of Dieppe, satisfactorily proved 

 that the specimen was not killed in this country. 



Brisson described the Snow Goose ("Ornith.," vol. 

 vi, p. 288,) as Anser niceus. He also described 

 another bird, at p. 1375 of the same volume, as Anser 

 sylcestris freti hudsonis, which had previously been 

 described by Linneeus as Anser ca^rulescens, ("Syst. 

 Nat.," tenth edition,) and which had also been figured 

 by Edwards as the "Blue-winged Goose," (vol. iii, pi. 

 152.) Latham, writing thirty ^^ears after Brisson, 

 describes the young of the Snow Goose as blue until 

 it was a year old; and Temminck, in his "Manuel," 

 1820, vol. ii, p. 817, described the young bird as 

 differing from its parent materially until it attained 

 the age of four years, and at the same time pointed 

 out that in this immature plumage it was the Anas 

 ccerulescens of Linnseus, and the Anser syhestris freti 

 hudsonis of Brisson. So it has remained since his 

 day. The American writers, who ought to have been 

 well acqviainted with the bird, have all followed 

 Temminck and the other European ornithologists. 

 Nuttall says, ("Ornithology of United States," p. 345, 

 vol, ii,) "It is said the young do not attain the full 

 plumage of the old birds before their fourth year, and 

 until that period they appear to keep in separate 

 flocks." 



All this, hoAvever, is positively denied by Mr. George 

 Barnston, of the Hudson's Bay Company, whose 

 opportunities of practical observation in Hudson's Bay, 

 the great locality of the Snow Goose, have been very 



