590 ANSER FEELS. 



Male in Winter. — The Wild Goose, although not of an 

 elegant form, has none of the awkward appeai'ance of our 

 domestic species, which is generally supposed to owe its origin 

 to it, being a strong, vigourous, and moderately active bird. 

 The body is very large and full ; the neck long, at its upper 

 part slender ; the head proportionally small, ovate-oblong, 

 and compressed. 



The bill is about the length of the head, much larger than 

 in any other of our species, higher than broad at the base ; 

 the upper mandible with the ridge broad and flat at the base, 

 gradually narrowed and convex toward the end, terminated 

 by a nearly circular convex unguis ; the dorsal line sloping, 

 on the unguis arcuato-decurvate, the sides sloping, the edges 

 arcuate, marginate, with eighteen oblique lamella?, of which 

 the outer ends are dentiform, rather acute, and prominent ; 

 the lower mandible with the intercrural space rather narrow, 

 rounded anteriorly, extending nearly to the unguis, which is 

 smaller than the upper, but of the same form ; the lower out- 

 line of the crura considerably convex, their sides rounded, the 

 edges sloping inwards, and having thirty lamella?. 



The mouth is an inch and a half in width. The anterior 

 palate concave, with two lateral rows of short laminae, sepa- 

 rated from the marginal laminoe by a groove, and five rows of 

 small dentiform papilla?. The tongue is fleshy, narrow, with 

 marginal series of spicular horny papilla? directed backwards, 

 and a rounded, concave, thin, horny tip. The oesophagus is 

 eighteen inches long, of nearly uniform width ; the pro ventri- 

 cular part a little dilated. The gizzard is extremely large and 

 muscular, transversely elliptical ; its epithelium dense, of a 

 cartilaginous hardness, rugous, with distinct oblique fibres. 

 The lateral muscles of extreme size, with large radiating 

 tendons, of which the fibres are interlaced at their junction. 

 The intestine is eight feet long ; one of the cceca eight, the 

 other nine inches in length. 



The nostrils are oblong, four and a half twelfths in length, 

 about the middle of the bill, in the anterior and lower part of 

 the oblongo-elliptical nasal space, which is covered by mem- 

 brane, and parallel to the ridge. The eyes are rather small, 

 their aperture being four-twelfths. The legs rather short and 



