GREY-GEESE 351 



species pass nearly so far southward in winter as the 

 grey-lag. The last nests not only, as just stated, on 

 the Norwegian coast, but also in considerable numbers 

 in Scotland (especially the Hebrides) ; while in winter, it 

 is by far the most numerous of the geese that resort 

 to the Spanish marismas. The grey-lag, in short, is 

 of distinctly more temperate tastes than either of the 

 other two species, which latter are certainly the common 

 winter wild-geese of the British Islands. 



Turning to these winter wild-geese (that is, the bean 

 and pink-footed species), their habits are identical with 

 those of the autumnal geese already described. They 

 pass the night roosting on the dry sand-flats, and by day- 

 light proceed inland to feed on grain, grass, and other 

 vegetable substances. But they never, in my experience, 

 pitch on water, mud, or ooze ; or, in short, in any posi- 

 tion in which a stanchion-gun can be brought to bear 

 upon them. A few instances in which, within my lifelong 

 experience of wild fowling afloat, a successful shot has 

 been brought off at grey-geese (and then only by lucky 

 chance), are related in my Art of Wild fowling: All 

 those obtained have been pink-footed and bean-geese. 

 The grey-lag we have never once secured. 



The fourth species of the group is the white-fronted 

 goose {Anser albifrons) ; and it is a remarkable fact, and 

 one strongly corroborative of the uncertainty which, as I 

 hold, surrounds our knowledge of this genus, that of the 

 merely trifling number of specimens which we have been 

 able to secure, one has proved to belong to a fifth species, 

 previously unknown in the British Isles. This is the Lesser 

 White-fronted goose (Anser erythropus of Linnseus), a 

 bird which breeds on the Lapland fjelds, but appears to 

 be of more easterly distribution in winter, frequenting the 



