CHEN ALBATUS. 
CASSIS’S SNOW GOOSE. 
ANSER ALBATUS. Cassin. 
Proc. Acad. Nat. Scien., Phil. (1856.) p. 41. 
This bird is very closely allied to the better-known Snow Goose, 0. llyperboreus, but may be distinguished from that species by its 
much smaller size. Mr. Cassin, who first brought it to the attention of Ornithologists in the publication above referred to, thus 
speaks of it : 
“ A single specimen from Oregon is in the collection of the Exploring Expedition in the Vincennes and Peacock, and four specimens 
which occurred in pairs have come under my notice in the market of Philadelphia in the. course of twenty years. These five 
specimens are all that I have seen of this species, and it is very probably of rare occurrence on the coast of the Atlantic in this 
latitude, much more so than the preceding. The four specimens alluded to, which are a pair of adults and a pair of young, are now in 
the collection of the Philadelphia Academy.” 
Three species of Snow Geese have been confounded by many authors, viz., the C. ITyperhoreus, or Common Snow Goose, the 0. 
Ccerulescens, and the present species. The second one of these was considered as the young of the first species, as it never becomes 
perfectly white, and too little was known of the C. Albatus, until Mr. Cassin obtained his four specimens, for any one to say whether 
or not it was entitled to specific distinctness. 
That portion of our continent inhabited by this species has not yet been definitely ascertained, but it will without doubt be 
found in similar localities to those in which its allies dwell. 
Mr. Bernard Ross, in lii.s paper, in the Natural History Review, No. 7, on the Fauna of the Mackenzie River District, remarks, that 
“there can be no doubt of the existence of three species of Snow Geese exclusive of the Blue Wavey of Hudson’s Bay (Anas Crerulescens), 
as the Slave Lake Indians have a different name for each land. The first which arrives is the middle sized species, which I believe 
to be A. Albatus • next comes the smallest sort, A. Jtossii : and lastly, the A. lh/perboreas, which arrives when the trees are in the 
leaf, and is called the Yellow Wavey by the Indians.” 
The following is Mr. Cassia’s description of this species : Form : Smaller than the preceding (A. Hyperboreus) ; bill shorter, bare 
space at the base of the upper mandible not extending so far into the feathers on the sides of the bill in front, Wing long, second 
quill longest ; tail short, but comparatively rather long than in the preceding, which is also the case with the tarsus. 
Dimensions: Male. — Total length of skin about twenty-five inches; wing, 15| ; tail, 53; bill measured along the culrnen from tip 
to feathers, two ; to gap, two ; tarsus, three inches. Sexes alike, female slightly smaller. Colors, adult : Entire plumage white, except 
primaries, which are pale cinereous at base, and black in the terminating two-thirds of their length. Front and cheeks spotted with 
ferrugineous. Hab. Western and Northern America, Oregon, rare on the Atlantic. 
