214 
SHOW GOOSE. 
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 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 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.” 
The young birds of this species begin to acquire their whiteness about the 
head and neck after the first year, but the upper parts remain of a dark 
bluish colour until the bird suddenly becomes white all over ; at least, this 
is the case with such as are kept in captivity. Although it is allied to the 
White-fronted or Laughing Goose, Anser albifrons, I was surprised to find 
that Wilson had confounded the two species together, and been of opinion 
that the Bean Goose also was the same bird in an imperfect state of plumage. 
That excellent ornithologist tells us that “ this species, called on the sea-coast 
the Red Goose, arrives in the river Delaware, from the north, early in 
November, sometimes in considerable flocks, and is extremely noisy, their 
notes being shriller and more squeaking than those of the Canada, or com- 
mon Wild Goose. On their first arrival, they make but a short stay, 
proceeding, as the depth of winter approaches, farther south ; but from the 
middle of February, until the breaking up of the ice in March, they are 
frequently numerous along both shores of the Delaware, about and below 
Reedy Island, particularly near Old Duck Creek, in the State of Delaware. 
They feed on roots of the reeds there, which they tear up like hogs.” 
This species is rare both in Massachusetts and South Carolina, although it 
passes over both these States in considerable numbers, and in the latter some 
have been known to alight among the common domestic Geese, and to have 
remained several days with them. My friend Dr. Bachman, of Charleston, 
South Carolina, kept a male Snow Goose several years along with his tamo 
Geese. He had received it from a friend while it was in its grey plumage, 
and the following spring it became white. It had been procured in the 
autumn, and proved to be a male. In a few days it became very gentle, and 
for several years it mated with a common Goose ; but the eggs produced by 
