HYPERBOREA. 
w. 
YOUNG OF THE SNOW GOOSE. 
[Plate LXIX. — Fig. 5. Female.'] 
Bean Goose? Lath. Syn. in, p. 464. — White fronted Goose? Ibid. 
Ill, p. 463. — Jlrct. Zool. A’o. 474. Blue winged Goose? Lath. 
Syn. Ill, p. 469. — Pealh’s Museum, JYo, 2636,* 
The full plumaged perfect male bird of this species has already 
been figured in the preceding plate, and I now hazard a conjec- 
ture, founded on the best examination I could make of the young 
bird here figured, comparing it with the descriptions of the dif- 
ferent 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 co- 
lours. 
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 evi- 
dent marks in the particular structure of their bills, &c. of be- 
ing the same identical species. A gradual change so great, as 
from a bird of this colour to one of pure white, must necessari- 
ly produce a number of varieties, or differences in the appear- 
ance 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 there- 
fore to be regretted, that the authors above referred to in the 
synonyms, have paid so little attention to the singular confor- 
*.4«as cccrulescens, Gmei. Syst. i, p, 513, No. 12. — Ind. Orn. p. 836, No. 13. 
Blue winged Goose, L.vrH. Sup. ii, p. 346, No. 8. — L’Oye sauvage de la Baye de 
Hudson, Bniss. vi, p. 275, No. 5 — L’Oye des Esquimaux, Buff, ix, p. 80. 
