172 
ANAS HYPERBOREA. 
others of their tribe that feed on vegetables, is excel- 
lent. 
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 resembling 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 co our 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 carmine 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 indentations, 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 extremity, is armed on 
each side with thirteen long and sharp bony teeth, 
placed like those of a saw, with their points directed 
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, bestowed on one of its varieties, 
though it might with as much propriety have been 
named the grinning goose. 
The specimen from which the above description 
I 
