The Snow Goose was first recorded as a visitor to the
British Islands by the Editor, whose attention was called to
two immature examples hanging up in Leadenhall Market
on the 9tli of November, 1871. Subsequent investigation,
in which the Editor was assisted by Sir Victor Brooke,
showed conclusively that these two birds had been shot a
few days before, on the lake of Tacumshane, on the south
coast of co. Wexford, and a third was soon after shot in
Wexford harbour but not preserved (P. Z. S. 1872, p. 519).
One of these passed into the collection of the late Mr. G.
Dawson Rowley; the other is in that of Mr. Dresser.
In £ The Zoologist ’ for 1878 (p. 419), Mr. J. E. Harting
quoted the following letter from Mr. J. R. Crampton, of
Belmullet, co. Mayo :—“ A flock of seven Snow Geese were
seen on marshy ground in Termoncarra, in the Barony of Erris,
about the end of October last [1877]. One of them was shot,
and a second, a gander, trapped. After a time the latter
was placed with some tame Geese, and soon fraternized with
them. He has now (Aug. 26th) got quite tame, and may
be seen leading a party of three dozen of his domesticated
relatives, who follow him wherever he goes.” Subsequently
Mr. Harting was informed (Zool. 1881, p. 308) that this
bird, after slaying a rival in fair fight, had paired with one
of the Common Geese, and assisted to rear a family of
goslings. This bird having since died, its stuffed remains
were examined by the Editor during a recent visit to
Dublin, and the illustration at the head of the present article
is taken from a sketch made by Mr. Whymper. Being a
gander, and adult at the time of its death, its measurements
somewhat exceed those of the two immature birds obtained
near Wexford.
There appears to be some evidence that the above may
not, after all, be the earliest known occurrences of the Snow
Goose in Ireland. Two birds of this species were in the
aviary of the thirteenth Earl of Derby at Knowsley, and at
his death were sold by public auction, in August 1851, to
Mr. Castang of Leadenhall Market. The latter informed
Mr. Bidwell (Zool. 1878, p. 453) that he gave £5 for the
pair; and was consequently joked at by the late Mr. John
Thompson, the superintendent of Lord Derby’s menagerie,
who said that he had purchased three of them while travelling
in Ireland, out of a flock of Common Geese running on
a green.
The Snow Goose has not yet been obtained in Scotland
or England, but the Editor has been informed by the Rev.
H. A. Macpherson that a bird of this species was observed
by himself and others during the early part of the autumn
of 1884 on the coast of Cumberland. The ‘ Cream-coloured
Goose’ figured by Meyer in his “ British Birds” is evidently
a mere albino, the primaries being of a creamy-white like
the rest of the body, whereas they are black in the present
species.
The true home of the Snow Goose is in the Nearctic region ;
and Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, in their ‘ Birds of
North America,’ write as follows:—“ There can be little question
that two forms of the Snow Goose exist in North America,
distinguished by their size and also their geographical distribution.
The smaller, to which the name hyperboreus
properly belongs, and of which albatus, Cassin, is a puie
synonym, occurs throughout the north-western portions of
the continent (being the only one known to breed in Alaska),
and in winter migrates over the whole of the country from
the Pacific coast to the Mississippi valley. The other, with
larger general size and disproportionately heavier bill, breeds
in the region about Hudson’s Bay, and in winter migrates
southward, chiefly along the Atlantic coast. This bird is the
Anas nivalis of Forster (1772), and if it is to be recognized
as a race, as we think it ought, it should be called Chen
(or Ansev) hyperboreus nivalis.” It is clear that the race
obtained in the British Islands is the smaller one; but as
it is impossible to say to which form are to be attributed
the Snow Geese recorded from time to time in the Old
World under the name of Anser hyperboreus, the Editor
must treat them under one name in the following sketch of
their distribution.
Mr. Gatke reports from Heligoland that on the 19th May,