256 ANATIDyE. 



identified by tlie examination of this organ alone. Figures 

 of these will be hereafter introduced as vignettes to the 

 species to which they belong. In the wild Grey Lag Goose 

 the tube of the windpipe is nearly cylindrical, and this form 

 of trachea the Author has often observed on examination 

 of domestic Geese intended for the table, but he has also 

 frequently found the tube flattened at the lower portion, a 

 character which is constant in the White-fronted Goose, 

 Anser alhifrons. Again, there are few persons acquainted 

 with the appearance of our domestic Geese who have not ob- 

 served in many of them the white ring of feathers round the 

 base of the beak extending a little upwards on the forehead, 

 from which Anser alhifrons derives one of its names : the 

 figure of the White-fronted Goose, the next species here 

 given, exhibits this mark. The breast of the latter is 

 strongly barred with black, and these markings are also 

 found, although less pronounced, in the Grey Lag Goose. 

 The legs of many of our domestic Geese are orange-coloured, 

 like those of the White-fronted Goose, whereas the legs of 

 the wild Grey Lag Geese are of a pale flesh-colour. The 

 white colour of the horny termination of the beak, called the 

 nail, is common to both. The occasional deviation from the 

 natural colour of the plumage of the wild birds to a pure 

 white, which is probably caused by domestication and selec- 

 tion, has been referred to. 



The wild Grey Lag Goose was formerly common in the 

 fens of this country, residing there the whole year, and 

 bringing out eight or nine young ; but the general system of 

 draining pursued in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Lincoln- 

 shire, has been the means of driving them away. The 

 precise date is not known ; but in ' The Zoologist ' for 1883 

 (p. 384), Mr. Harting quotes a letter addressed to the cele- 

 brated John Hunter by William Walcot, jun., of Oundle, 

 Northamptonshire, in which the latter says : " To the best 

 of my recollection it was in the summer of 1773 that I took 

 the original Goose (now in my possession) with three others 

 (then very little goslings) in the fens between Cambridge and 

 Ely." Daniel, in his ' Eural Sports ' (iii. p. 242), published 



