214 SNOW GOOSE. 



of Arctic America, in great numbers. The eggs, of a yellowish-white 

 colour, and regularly ovate form, are a little larger than those of the Eider 

 Duck, their length being three inches, and their greatest breadth two. The 

 young fly in August, and by the middle of September all have departed to 

 the southward. The Snow Goose feeds on rushes, insects, and in autumn on 

 berries, particularly those of the Empetrum nigrum. When well fed it is 

 a very excellent bird, far superior to the Canada Goose in juiciness and 

 flavour. It is said that the young do not attain the full plumage before their 

 fourth year, and until that period they appear to keep in separate flocks. 

 They are numerous at Albany Fort in the southern part of Hudson's Bay, 

 where the old birds are rarely seen; and, on the other hand, the old birds in 

 their migrations visit York Factory in great abundance, but are seldom 

 accompanied by the young. The Snow Geese make their appearance in 

 spring a few days later than the Canada Geese, and pass in large flocks both 

 through the interior and on the coast." 



The young birds of this species begin to acquire their whiteness about the 

 head and neck after the first year, but the upper parts remain of a dark 

 bluish colour until the bird suddenly becomes white all over; at least, this is 

 the case with such as are kept in captivity. Although it is allied to the 

 White-fronted or Laughing Goose, Jinser albifrons, I was surprised to find 

 that Wilson had confounded the two species together, and been of opinion 

 that the Bean Goose also was the same bird in an imperfect state of plumage. 

 That excellent ornithologist tells us that "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 com- 

 mon W T ild Goose. On their first arrival, they make but a short stay, 

 proceeding, as the depth of winter approaches, farther south; but from the 

 middle of February, until the breaking up of the ice in March, they are 

 frequently numerous along both shores of the Delaware, about and below 

 Reedy Island, particularly near Old Duck Creek, in the State of Delaware. 

 They feed on roots of the reeds there, which they tear up like hogs." 



This species is rare both in Massachusetts and South Carolina, although it 

 passes over both these States in considerable numbers, and in the latter some 

 have been known to alight among the common domestic Geese, and to have 

 remained several days with them. My friend Dr. Bachman, of Charleston, 

 South Carolina, kept a male Snow Goose several years along with his tame 

 Geese. He had received it from a friend while it was in its grey plumage, 

 and the following spring it became white. It had been procured in the 

 autumn, and proved to be a male. In a few days it became very gentle, and 

 for several years it mated with a common Goose; but the eggs produced by 



