GOOSE 372> 



into Western Europe about the year 1856. In this the scapulars 

 are elongated, curled, and spirally twisted, having their shaft 

 transparent, and so thin that it often splits into fine filaments, 

 which, remaining free for an inch or more, often coalesce again.^ 



The other British species of typical Geese are the Bean-Goose, 

 A. segetum, the Pink-footed, A. brachyrhyncJms, and the White- 

 fronted, A. alhifrons. On the continent of Europe, but not yet 

 recognized as occurring in Britain, is a small form of the last, A. 

 erythropus, which is known to breed in Lapland. All these, for the 

 sake of discrimination, may be divided into two groups — (1) those 

 having the " nail " at the tip of the bill white, or of a very pale 

 flesh colour, and (2) those in which this " nail " is black. To the 

 former belong the Grey Lag Goose, as well as A. albifrons and A. 

 erythropus, and to the latter the other two. A. albifrons and A. 

 erythropus, which hardly diff'er but in size, — the last being not 

 much bigger than a Mallard, — may be readily distinguished from 

 the Grey Lag Goose by their bright orange bill and legs, and their 

 mouse-coloured upper wing-coverts, to say nothing of their very 

 conspicuous white face and the broad black bars which cross the 

 belly, though the two last characters are occasionally observable to 

 some extent in the Grey Lag Goose, which has the bill and legs 

 flesh-coloured, and the upper-wing coverts of a bluish-grey. Of the 

 second group, with the black " nail," A. segetum has the bill long, 

 black at the base and orange in the middle ; the feet are also 

 orange, and the upper wing- coverts mouse -coloured, while A. 

 brachyrhynchus has the bill short, bright pink in the middle, and the 

 feet also pink, the upper wing-coverts being nearly of the same 

 bluish-grey as in the Grey Lag Goose. Eastern Asia possesses in 

 A. grandis a third species of this group, which chiefly differs from 

 A. segetum in its larger size. In North America there is only one 

 species of typical Goose, and that belongs to the white-" nailed " 

 group. It very nearly resembles A. albifrons, but is larger, and 

 has been described as distinct under the name of A. gambeli. 

 Central Asia and India possess in the Bar-headed Goose, A. indicus, 



1 Want of space forbids our entering on the breeding of tame Geese, wliich 

 was formerly so largely practised in some English counties, especially Norfolk 

 and Lincoln. It was no nncommon thing for a man to keep a stock of a 

 thousand, each of which might be reckoned to rear on an average seven Goslings. 

 The flocks were regularly taken to pasture and water, just as sheep are, and the 

 man who tended them was called the Gooseherd, corrupted into Gozzerd. The 

 birds were plucked five times in the year, and in autumn the flocks were driven 

 to London or other large markets. They travelled at the rate of about a mile an 

 hour, and would get over nearly ten miles in the day. For further particulars 

 the reader may be referred to Pennant's British Zoology ; Montagu's Ornithological 

 Dictionary ; Latham's General History of Birds ; Stevenson's Birds of Norfolk ; 

 and Rowley's Ornithological Miscellany (iii. pp. 206-215), where some account 

 also may be found of the Goose-fatting at Strassburg. 



