89 



YOUNG OF THE SNOW GOOSE. 

 ANAS HYPERBOREA. 

 [Plate LXIX.— Fig. 5.] 



♦ 



Bean Goosed Lath. Syn. Ill, p. 464 White fronted Goose"} Ibid. Ill, j). 463.-— Jlrcf. ZooZ. JVo. 476^ 



JBitte winged Goose'?^ Lath, Syn. Ill, p, 469. — Peale's Museum, «A^o. 2636. 



THE full plumaged perfect male bird of this species has al- 

 ready been figured in the preceding plate, and I now hazard a 

 conjecture, founded on the best examination I could make of the 

 young bird here figured, comparing it with the descriptions of the 

 different accounts above referred to, that the whole of them have 

 been taken from the various individuals of the present, in a greater 

 or lesser degree of approach to its true and perfect colors. 



These birds pass along our coasts, and settle in our rivers, 

 every autumn ; among thirty or forty there are seldom more than 

 six or eight pure white, or old birds. The rest vary so much that 

 no two are exactly alike ; yet all bear the most evident marks in 

 the particular structure of their bills, &c. of being the same iden- 

 tical species. A gradual change so great, as from a bird of this 

 color to one of pure white, must necessarily produce a number of 

 varieties, or differences in the appearance of the plumage, but the 

 form of the bill and legs remain the same, and any peculiarity in 

 either is the surest mean we have to detect a species under all its 

 various appearances. It is therefore to be regretted, that the au- 

 thors above referred to in the synonyms, have paid so little atten- 

 tion to the singular conformation of the bill ; for even in their 

 description of the Snow Goose, neither that nor the internal pecu- 

 liarities, are at all mentioned. 



VOL. VIII. z 



