100 
SNOW GOOSE. 
the breaking up of the ice in March, they are frequently nume- 
rous along both shores of the Delaware, about and below Reedy 
Island, particularly near Old Duck Creek, in the state of De- 
laware. They feed on the roots of the reeds there, tearing 
them up from the marshes like hogs. Their flesh, like most 
others of their tribe that feed on vegetables, is excellent. 
The snow goose is two feet eight inches in length, and five 
feet in extent ; the bill is three inches in length, remarkably 
thick at the base, and rising high in the forehead, but becomes 
small and compressed at the extremity, where each mandible 
is furnished with a whitish rounding nail ; the colour of the 
bill is a purplish carmine ; the edges of the two mandibles 
separate from each other in a singular manner for their whole 
length, and this gibbosity is occupied by dentated rows, resem- 
bling teeth, these, and the parts adjoining, being of a blackish 
colour ; the whole plumage is of a snowy whiteness, with the 
exception, first, of the fore part of the head all round as far as 
the eyes, which is of a yellowish rust colour, intermixed with 
white ; and, second, the nine exterior quill-feathers, which 
are black, shafted with white, and white at the root ; the coverts 
of these last, and also the bastard wing, are sometimes of a 
pale ash colour ; the legs and feet of the same purplish car- 
mirie as the bill ; iris, dark hazel ; the tail is rounded, and 
consists of sixteen feathers ; that, and the wings, when shut, 
nearly of a length. 
The bill of this bird is singularly curious ; the edges of the 
upper and lower gibbosities have each twenty-three indenta- 
tions, or strong teeth, on each side ; the inside, or concavity 
of the upper mandible, has also seven lateral rows of strong 
projecting teeth ; and the tongue, which is horny at the ex- 
tremity, is armed on each side with thirteen long and sharp 
bony teeth, placed like those of a saw’, wdth their points di- 
rected backwards ; the tongue turned up, and, viewed on its 
lower side, looks very much like a human finger with its nail. 
This conformation of the mandibles, exposing two rows of 
strong teeth, has probably given rise to the epithet, laughing. 
