112 
YOUNG OF THE SNOW GOOSE. 
YOUNG OF THE SNOW GOOSE.— ANAS HYPERBOREA. 
Plate LXIX. Fig. 5. 
Bean Goose, Lath. Syn. iii. p. 464.- — White-fronted Goose, Ibid. iii. p. 463 ; Arct. 
Zool. No. 476. — Blue-winged Goose, Lath. Syn. iii. p. 469. — Peak's Museum^ 
No. 2636. 
ANSER IIYPERBOREAS. —Bona parte. 
The full“plumaged perfect male bird of this species, has 
already 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 pre- 
sent, in a greater or lesser degree of approach to its true and 
perfect colours. 
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 identical species. A gradual change so great, 
as from a bird of this colour to one of pure white, must neces- 
sarily produce a number of varieties, or differences in the ap- 
pearance of the plumage ; but the form of the bill and legs 
remains the same, and any peculiarity in either is the surest 
mean we have to detect a species under all its various appear- 
ances. It is therefore to be regretted, that the authors above 
referred to in the synonymes, have paid so little attention to the 
singular conformation of the bill ; for even in the description 
of the snow goose, neither that nor the internal peculiarities 
are at all mentioned. 
The length of the bird, represented in our plate, was twenty- 
eight inches ; extent, four feet eight inches ; bill, gibbous at 
