ANATID^E. 467 



[226.] 2. Anser hyperboreus. (Bonap.) Snow Goose. 



Sub-family, Anserinae, Swains. Genus, Anser, Auct. 



The Blue-winged Goose. Edwards, pi. 152. Young. 



Anas nivalis (S?iow goose). Forster, Phil. Trans., lxii., p. 413, No. 45. 



Snow goose. Pens. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 549, No. 477- 



Snow goose (Anas hyperborea). Wils., viii., p. 70, pi. 08, f. 3, male, and p. 89, pi. 09, f. 5, young. 



White Brant. Lewis & Clark, iii., p. 58. 



Anas hyperborea. Richards. Append. Parry's Second Voy., p. 305, No. 28. 



Anser hyperboreus. Bonap. Syn., No. 315. 



Waewae-oo or wapow-waeoo. Cree Indians. Cathcatew-waewaeoo. The Young. 



Wavey. Hudson'sBay Residents. Kangokh (plur. kang-oot). Esquimaux. 



The Snow Goose breeds in the barren grounds 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 the end of 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 of the old bird 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. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a male killed at Fort Enterprise, lat. 05°, June 1, 1821. 



Colour, white. Quills pitch-black ; their shafts white towards the base. Head glossed 

 with ferruginous. Irid.es dark hair-brown. Bill, feet, and orbits, aurora-red ; ungues of 

 both mandibles livid. — The ferruginous tint occupies different portions of the head in different 

 individuals, and in some extends to the neck and middle of the belly. 



An immature bird has a few feathers on the crown and nape, the fore part of the back, 

 ends of the scapulars, and some of their coverts, and the outer webs of the tail feathers 

 greyish-brown, all tipped, and more or less edged, with white. Tertiaries and rest of the 

 plumage as in the old bird. Some individuals deviate from the full plumage merely in the 

 bastard wing and primary coverts retaining their grey colour ; while in very young birds, 

 part of the under plumage is also greyish-brown. 



Form. — Bill shaped much like that of A. albifrons. 



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