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.dNdS HJYPERBORESd
           YOUNG OF THE SNOW GOOSE.
              [Plate LXIX.-Fig. 5. Female.]
Bean Goose? LATH. Syn. III, p. 464.- Whitefronted Goose? Ibid.
  III, p. 463.-.drct. Zool. NJo. 474. Blue winged Goose? LATH.
  Syn. III, p. 469.-PEALE'S .Aifuseuni, Xo. 265.6,*
  THE full plumaged perfect male bird of this species has already
been figured in the preceding plate, and I now hazard a conjec-
ture, founded on the best examination I could make of the young
bird here figured, comparing it with the descriptions of the dif-
ferent accounts above referred to, that the whole of them have
been taken from the various individuals of the present, in a
greater or lesser degree of approach to its true and perfect co-
lours.
  These birds pass along our coasts, and settle in our rivers,
every autumn; among thirty or forty there are seldom more
than six or eight pure white, or old birds. The rest vary so
much that no two are exactly alike; yet all bear the most evi-
dent marks in the particular structure of their bills, &c. of be-
ing the same identical species. A gradual change so great, as
from a bird of this colour to one of pure white, must necessari-
ly produce a number of varieties, or differences in the appear-
ance of the plumage, but the form of the bill and legs remain the
same, and any peculiarity in either is the surest mean we have
to detect a species under all its various appearances. It is there-
fore to be regretted, that the authors above referred to in the
synonyms, have paid so little attention to the singular confor-
  *JnTS ccertilescens, GmIEL. SySL. i, p. 513, No. 12.-Ind. Ort. P. 836,
No. 13.
Blue winged Goose, LATH. Sup. ii, p. 346, No. 8.-L'Oye sauvage de la Baye
de
Hudson, BRiss. vr, p. 275, No. 5.-Lioye des3Esquimnaux, BUFF. IX , p. 80,