132 SNOW GOOSE. 



Tliey are the last to leave tlie coast for southern 

 climes about the end of September, some weak broods 

 and wounded birds lingering to the first week of 

 October. They are deliberate and judicious in their 

 preparations for their long flight, and make their 

 arrangements in a very business-like manner. They 

 leave oiF feeding in the marshes for a day or more, 

 keeping out with the retreating ebb tide, and retiring 

 as it were by steps unwilling at its flow, adjusting 

 their feathers continually, and dressing them with their 

 fatty oil. They are then ready for the first north or 

 north-west wind that blows; and in twenty-four hours 

 the coast that had been resonant with their petulant 

 and incessant cries, and covered patch-like by their 

 whitened squadrons, is silent and deserted — a barren 

 and frozen shore." 



The general plumage of the Snow Goose is white; 

 forehead yellowish; primaries white at their base, and 

 black on their distal half. Iris, hair brown; beak, feet, 

 and orbits red, the inferior mandible lighter, and the 

 nails of both blue. 



According to all modern authors, the young is 

 described as the species the diagnosis of which will 

 follow this. According, however, to Mr. Barnston, as 

 above quoted, the young are white, with their heads 

 stained with ferruginous. 



My figure of this bird is taken by kind permission 

 from the beautiful plate of Mr. Gould, in his Birds of 

 Europe. 



Figures will also be found by Wilson, American 

 Ornithology, vol. viii, pi. 68, fig. 5; Naumann, Vogel 

 Nacht., pi. 23, fig. 46. 



