212 SNOW GOOSE. 



lower extremity, the cuticular lining thick, very hard, and denticulate on one 

 side. The intestine seven feet long, the coeca twelve inches, and placed at 

 the distance of one foot from the anus. 



SNOW GOOSE. 



t^NSER HYPERBOREUS, Gmel. 



PLATE CCCLXXXL— Adult Male and Young Female. 



The geographical range of the Snow Goose is very extensive. It has 

 been observed in numerous flocks, travelling northward, by the members of 

 the recent overland expeditions. On the other hand, I have found it in 

 Texas, and it is very abundant on the Columbia river, together with Hut- 

 chins' Goose. In the latter part of autumn, and during winter, I have met 

 with it in every part of the United States that I have visited. 



While residing at Henderson on the Ohio, I never failed to watch the 

 arrival of this and other species in the ponds of the neighbourhood, and 

 generally found the young Snow Geese to make their appearance in the 

 beginning of October, and the adult or white birds about a fortnight later. 

 In like manner, when migrating northward, although the young and the 

 adult birds set out at the same time, they travel in separate flocks, and, 

 according to Captain Sir George Back, continue to do so even when pro- 

 ceeding to the higher northern latitudes of our continent. It is not less 

 curious that, during the whole of the winter, these Geese remain equally 

 divided, even if found in the same localities; and although young and old 

 are often seen to repose on the same sand-bar, the flocks keep at as great a 

 distance as possible. 



The Snow Goose in the grey state of its plumage is very abundant in 

 winter, about the mouths of the Mississippi, as well as on all the muddy and 

 grassy shores of the bays and inlets of the Gulf of Mexico, as far as Texas, 

 and probably still farther to the south-west. During the rainy season, it 

 betakes itself to the large prairies of Attacapas and Oppellousas, and there 

 young and adult procure their food together, along with several species of 

 Ducks, Herons, and Cranes, feeding, like the latter, on the roots of plants, 



