468 CANADA GOOSE. 



and tail-coverts, dusky white : tail, pointed, and of a hoary 

 colour. 



The female is considerably less than the male, and entirely 

 destitute of the tumid plumage of the head ; the head, neck, 

 and upper parts of the body, and wings, are sooty black, 

 darkest on the crown ; side of the head marked with a small 

 oblong spot of white ; bill, dusky ; lower part of the neck, ash, 

 tipt with white ; belly, dull white ; vent, cinereous ; outer 

 edges of six of the secondaries and their incumbent coverts, 

 white, except the tips of the latter, which are black ; legs and 

 feet, a livid blue ; tail, hoary brown ; length of the intestines, 

 three feet six inches ; stomach filled with small shellfish. 

 This is the spirit-duck of Pennant, so called from its dexterity 

 in diving (Arctic Zoology, No. 487), likewise the little brown 

 duck of Catesby (Natural History of Carolina, pi. 98). 



This species is said to come into Hudson's Bay, about 

 Severn River, in June, and make their nests in trees in the 

 woods near ponds.* The young males during the first year 

 are almost exactly like the females in colour. 



CANADA GOOSE. {Anas Canadensis.) 



PLATE LXVII.— Fig. 4. 



L*Oye Savage de Canada, Briss. vi. p. 272, 4, pi. 26.— L'Oie a cravatte, Buff. ix. 

 p. 82. -Edw. pi. 151.— Arct. Zool. No. 471.— Catesby, i. pi. 92.— Lath. Syn. 

 iii. p. 450. — Peale's Museum, No. 2704. 



ANSER CANADENSIS.— Vieillot.* 



Bernicla Canadensis, Boie. — Anser Canadensis, Bonap. Synop. p. 377. — North. 

 Zool. ii. p. 468. — L'Outarde, French Canadians. — Bustard, Huds. B. Settlers. 



This is the common wild goose of the United States, univer- 

 sally known over the whole country, whose regular periodical 



* Latham. 



t The appellation "geese" will mark, in a general way, the birds and 

 form to which Anser should be generically applied. They are all of large 

 size, possess in part the gait of a gallinaceous bird, are gregarious, except 

 during the breeding season, mostly migratory, and are formed more for 



