Plate CCCLXXXI. Adult Male and Young Female.
Bill and feet carmine, unguis white, claws dusky; plumage pure white,
fore part of head tinged with yellowish-red; primaries brownish-grey,
toward the end blackish-brown, their shafts white, unless toward the
end. Young in its second plumage, with the bill yellow, or
flesh-coloured, the feet lake; head and upper part of neck, with the
wing-coverts, greyish-white; lower part of neck all round, fore part
of back, scapulars, fore part of breast and sides blackish-grey; hind
part of back and upper tail-coverts, ash-grey; quills greyish-black,
secondaries margined with greyish-white; tail-feathers dusky grey,
margined with greyish-white; breast and abdomen greyish-white.
_Male_, 31-3/4, 62. _Female_, 26, 55.
Western and Southern States, in autumn and winter. Breeds in the
Arctic Regions. Abundant.
Snow Goose, Anas hyperborea, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. viii. p. 76.
Anser hyperboreus, Bonap. Syn. p. 376.
Snow Goose, Nutt. Man. p. 344.
Anser hyperboreus, Snow Goose, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer.
v. ii. p. 467.
Snow Goose, Anser hyperboreus, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iv. p. 562.
GENUS III. CYGNUS, Meyer. SWAN.
Bill longer than the head, higher than broad at the base, depressed,
and a little widened toward the end, rounded; upper mandible with the
dorsal line sloping, the ridge very broad at the base, with a large
depression; narrowed between the nostrils, convex toward the end, the
sides nearly erect at the base, gradually becoming more horizontal and
convex toward the end, the sides soft and thin, with numerous
transverse little elevated internal lamellæ, the unguis obovate; nasal
groove elliptical, subbasal, covered by the soft membrane of the bill;
lower mandible flattened, with the angle very long, and rather narrow,
the sides convex, the edges with numerous transverse lamellæ. Nostrils
submedial, longitudinal, placed near the ridge, elliptical. Head of
moderate size, oblong, compressed; neck extremely long and slender;
body very large, compact, depressed. Feet short, stout, placed a
little behind the centre of the body; tibia bare for a very small
space; tarsus short, a little compressed, covered all round with
angular scales; hind toe extremely small, with a very narrow membrane;
third longest, fourth very little shorter; anterior toes covered with
angular scales for nearly half their length, then scutellate, and
connected by broad reticulated entire membranes. Claws rather small,
strong, arched, compressed, rather obtuse. Space between the bill and
eye bare; plumage dense and soft. Wings long, broad; primaries curved,
stiff, the second longest. Tail very short, graduated, of twenty or
more feathers. Œsophagus very slender, at the lower part of the
neck a little dilated; stomach transversely elliptical, with the
lateral muscles extremely large, the epithelium dense, with two
concave grinding surfaces; intestine long, and of moderate width;
cœca rather large, narrow; cloaca globular. Trachea generally
enters a cavity in the sternum, whence it is reflected, before it
passes into the thorax; no inferior laryngeal muscles.