■474 ANSERIDiE. ■ 



assigned to them, since they form a link, as it were, 

 between the Waders and the important order which we 

 are now about to consider. 



First among these are the Geese, characterised by having 

 a large, ovate body, a long neck, a short and stout beak, 

 high at the base and bent down at the tip, adapted for 

 cropping vegetable food ; the wings are large and powerful ; 

 the legs, placed under the centre of the body, afford some 

 facility in walking, and the webbed feet are eminently 

 fitted for paddling, but rarely employed in diving. They 

 spend the greater portion of the year in high latitudes, 

 where their arrival is celebrated with great rejoicings, as 

 an indication of returning summer. They are eminently 

 gregarious, flying generally in the form of a half-opened 

 pair of compasses, with the angle in front, or in an irregular 

 wavy line, and uttering a loud harsh cry, which may often 

 be heard some time before the birds themselves are in 

 sight. 



The j)resent species, which is sup]30sed by some to be 

 the origin of the domestic Goose, was formerly of common 

 occurrence in Great Britain, but is now much less frequent. 

 On their arrival in autumn, they resort to marshes and 

 swamps, meadows,' corn-fields, and turnip-fields, especially 

 such as are remote from human dwellings. There they 

 feed by day on such vegetable substances as fall in their 

 way, but they are said to prefer the young shoots of corn 

 to any other kind of food. So wary are they and difficult 

 of approach, that a " Wild Goose chase " is a proverbial 

 expression for an unsuccessful enterprise. At night they 

 retire to the broad flats near the sea, or to the mouths of 

 rivers, where they roost on the ground. Yarrell is of 

 opinion " that the term ' lag,' as applied to this Goose, is 

 either a modification of the English word ' lake,' the Latin 

 lacuSj or perhaps an abbreviation of the ItaHan ^lago,' 

 from which latter country it is even probable that we 

 may originally have obtained this our domesticated race." 



