852 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



coasts of Greece and Egypt, especially the great lagoons 

 of the Nile Delta. Its occurrence in Spain has been 

 reported, but not a single example has been obtained 

 therein among many hundreds of grey-lags shot by us on 

 the marshes of the lower Guadalquivir during over twenty 

 winters past. This addition to the British avifauna was 

 made by my brother Alfred, who shot a young male of 

 this small grey-goose on Fenham Flats, on the North- 

 umbrian coast, September 16th, 1886, and the credit 

 of the discovery is due to his correct identification. 

 This bird is now admitted to be an unquestionable 

 example of Anser erythropus, the only one then in exist- 

 ence killed in Great Britain, and the specimen is now in 

 my collection. 1 



The following is my brother's description : — By mid- 

 day we had secured seven wigeon and three teal, and were 

 lunching aboard the punt when, about 3 p.m., a bird came 

 in sight flying from north directly towards us. We, of 

 course, lay flat, and as it approached I was struck by its 

 great expanse of wing. It was evidently a "grey-goose" 

 of some kind. There was hardly any wind. When it 

 arrived within fifty yards, I raised my arms to shoot : 

 the goose gave a quick swerve, but next moment dropped 

 in the water with broken wing, and began to swim away, 

 gaggling like a domestic goose. From the moment of 

 handling him, I felt sure I had got a prize, though what it 

 was I could not tell. It was evidently a bird of the year, 

 but too small for a young white-fronted goose. 



The following particulars describe this young male of 

 Anser erythropus, the colours being jotted down within 

 a few minutes of the bird's death : — Legs and feet, yellow- 



1 A second British example was killed on the Wash, off the Norfolk 

 coast, in January 1901 (Ibis, 1902, p. 269). 



