80 
SNOW GOOSE. 
larly near Old Duck Creek, in the state of Delaware. 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, rises high in the forehead, but becomes small and com- 
pressed at the extremity, where each mandible is furnished with a 
whitish rounding nail, its color 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 resembling teeth, these and the parts adjoining being of a 
blackish color ; 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 color intermixed with white, 
and, secondly, 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, is sometimes of a pale ash color ; the 
legs and feet of the same purplish carmine as the bill ; iris dai’k 
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 indentations, 
or strong teeth, on each side ; and the inside or concavity of the 
upper mandible has also seven lateral rows of strong projecting 
teeth. The tongue, which is horny at the extremity, is armed on 
each side with thirteen long and sharp bony teeth, placed like those 
of a saw, with their points directed backwards ; turned up, and 
viewed on its lower side, it looks very much like a human finger 
with its nail. 
The specimen from which the figure in the plate, and the 
above description were taken, was shot in the Delaware, below Phi- 
ladelphia, on the fifteenth of February; and on dissection proved 
