lactuca, and other marine plants thrown up by the tide, by which its flesh
acquires a strong taste. It leaves its breeding quarters in September, and
lingers on the shores of New Jersey until December, when it goes further to
the southward.
DESCRIPTION
Of a female killed 21st June, on Melville Peninsula.
Colour.—Head, neck, shoulders, and swell of the breast, greyish-black; quills, ter-
tiaries, rump, and tail, greenish-black; back, scapulars, and outer and inner wing coverts,
clove-brown, margined with yellowish-grey. A mottled spot on the side of the neck, tail
coverts above and below, sides of the rump, and vent, white. Belly yellowish-grey. Flanks
transversely barred with bluish-grey and white. Bill and feet black.
Form.—Bill small, shorter than the head. Tail coverts as long as the tail, which is much
rounded. Dimensions
Of the female.
Inch. Lin. Inch. Inn. - Inch. Lin.
Length, total . 24 6 Length of bill to rictus . 1 5£ Length of outer toe . . 1 9
,, of tail • .- . 4 6 „ from tip to nostrils . 0 9 „ of outer nail . o 34
„ . of wing . 13 3 ,, of tarsus 2 2 ,, of hind toe . 0 44
,, of bill to front . 1 3& ,, of middle toe .. . 1 10 ,, of hind nail . 0 4
„ of bill to frontal angle 1 6 ,, of middle nail . 0 44 — R .
[229.] 5. A n s e r H u t c h i n s i i . (Richards.) Hutchins’s Barnacle Goose.
S ub-f a m il y , Anserinae, Swains. Genus, Anser, A u c t .
Canada Goose. H e a r n e , Joum., p. 439.
Anas bemicla, /3. R ichards. Append. Parry's Second Voy., p. 368.
ApisteeSkeesh. Cr.e e I n d ia n s .
Ch . Sp. A n s e r H u t c h in s ii rostro nigro sub-sesquiunciali, fasd& gulari reniformi alba, dimidio colli nigro, pectore
alio.
Sp. Ch . H u t c h in s 's G oose, with a black bill, less than an inch and a half in length; a white kidney-shaped patch
on the throat; upper half of the neck black ; the breast white.
On Captain Parry’s second voyage, several flocks of Geese were seen on
Melville Peninsula, which were thought by the officers of the Expedition to be
the Anser leucopsis or Barnacle, but which the Esquimaux said were the males
of the Anser bemicla, that, during the breeding-season, separate themselves
from the females. A number of specimens were secured, all of which proved
to be males, and, in the Appendix above quoted, I described them merely as a
variety of the Brent; but I have since obtained information, which leads me
to believe that they actually belong to a distinct species, hitherto confounded
with the A. Canadensis. They are well known in Hudson’s Bay by the Cree
name of Apistiskeesh, and are generally thought by the residents to be merely
a small kind of the Canada Goose, as they have the white kidney-shaped patch
on the throat, which is deemed peculiar to that species*. Their habits, however,
are dissimilar; the Canada Geese frequenting the fresh-water lakes and rivers
of the interior, and feeding chiefly on herbage; while the Apistiskeesh are always
found on the sea coast, feeding on the marine plants and the molluscm which
adhere to them, whence their flesh derives a strong fishy taste. In form, size,
and general colours of the plumage, the new species more nearly resembles the
Brent, than the Canada Goose. It differs, however, from the former in having
the white kidney-shaped patch on the throat and cheeks, in wanting the spotted
white mark on the side of the neck, in the black colour terminating four inches
higher]’, instead of including the swell of the upper parts of the back and breast,
and in the white of the vent being more extended: it is totally unlike A. leucopsis in plumage, and has a larger bill. We have designated the Apistiskeesh by the
name of Hutchinsii, in honour of a gentleman from whom Pennant and Latham
derived most of their information respecting the Hudson’s Bay birds.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, killed, June 19, 1822, on Melville Peninsula, and now in the Edinburgh Museum.
Colour.—Head, neck, rump, and tail pitch-black; back and both surfaces of the wings
clove-brown, the edges of the feathers yellowish-grey and worn. A speck before the eye, the
under eyelid a kidney-shaped patch on the throat similar to that of A. Canadensis, terminating
acutely on each side of the hind head, a band passing over the upper tail coverts and forwards
by the sides of the rump, breast, vent, and under tail coverts, all white; abdomen yellowish-grey,
edged with white ; flanks transversely barred with bluish-grey and white. Bill and feet black.
Form.—Bill higher than wide at the front, shaped much like that of A. bemicla, but wider,
the commissure straighter, and the teeth of the upper mandible not appearing externally.
Feathers of the front joining the bill in a semicircular line. Wings: first and third quills
nearly equal to the second, which is the longest; the spur at the angle of the wing nearly as
much developed as in A. bemicla, but less than in A. Canadensis and A . leucopsis. Tail9 of
fourteen feathers, rounded laterally; the middle pair shorter than the adjoining ones and
scarcely exceeding the outer ones.
Dimensions
Of the male.
Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin.
Length, total . . 25 0 Length of bill to front . 1 84 Length of middle nail . 0 4
„ of tail . 5 6 ,, of bill to frontal angle 1 9 ,, of outer toe 1 9
,, of wing 14 0 ,, of bill to rictus . 1 5 „ of outer nail . 0 44
„ of neck . . 5 6 ,, of tarsus . . 2 6 „ of hind toe . 0 44
„ of body . . 12 0 ,, of middle toe . 1 11 „ of hind nail . . 0 4
— R .
* Some mistake occurs in Forster’s account of tbe Canada Goose (Phil. Trans., Ixii.); the habits of A. Hutchinsii
(Small Grey Goose of Graham) being ascribed to the A. Canadensis ; while the Large Grey Goose, mentioned in the
same passage, is undoubtedly the Canada Goose, which we know to be the only species that breeds abundantly about
Setv ern River.—R. The black extends six inches from the occiput down the neck.—.R.