In the adult Snow Goose the entire plumage, except the
primaries, is snow white, the forehead sometimes stained
with orange-rust colour; primary quill-feathers black,
fading at the base into greyish ; the coverts of the latter
colour. Bill red, the nail whitish, space between the
commissures black; iris dark brown; legs and feet purple-
or orange-red, the soles dingy yellowish.
The young is dull brownish-grey on the upper parts, the
face white, the feathers on the scapular tipped and margined
with whitish; quills black, fading to grey at the base, the
shafts white, shading to brown towards the tips ; rump and
upper tail-coverts white ; tail white, the central feathers
marked grey in the middle ; under parts white, washed with
grey on the fore part of the breast and neck; bill nearly
black, with a reddish tinge, especially on the lower mandible;
legs and feet lead-colour, running to yellowish-red on the
webs ; iris brown.
Total length about thirty inches ; wing from fifteen to
eighteen and a half inches ; culmen from two to two and a
half inches; tarsus from two and three quarters to three and
a quarter inches. The female is smaller than the male.
The young bird in the downy stage is as yet unknown.
AN SERES. ANATIDJE.
Bernicla ruficollis (Pallas''").
THE BED-BREASTED GOOSE.
Anser ruficollis.
Bernicla, Boie +.—Bill much shorter than the head, sub-conical, higher than
broad at the base, narrowing to the end ; unguis, broadly ovate ; edges of the
bill nearly straight, scarcely showing the margins of the lamellae ; nostiils oval,
placed in the anterior portion of the nasal depression, near the centre of the bill.
Feathers on the neck narrow, blended. Wings large, the second quill usually
the longest. Tail short, rounded. Legs short, stout; the tarsus reticulate , the
three anterior toes long, united by a membrane, hind toe small, elevated , clavs
small, that on the middle toe broadly rounded.
This beautiful species is an inhabitant of Siberia, and
occasionally wanders on migration as far as the British
* Anser ruficollis, Pallas, Spicil. Zool. vi. p. 21, tav. v. (1/69).
f Isis, 1822, p. 563. This genus has been generally allowed to include the
present species, and the Editor accepts the arrangement to avoid the multiplication
of genera, but he does not consider it at all satisfactory.
VOL. IV. 0 O