ANATIDA. 461 
the Bean Goose seem to be tolerably common, 
especially in hard winters. 
The food of this bird appears to consist of grass, 
the tender shoots and leaves of clover, and other 
vegetables and corn. The one before mentioned as 
having been kept in this pond lived mostly on barley 
and the short grass on the lawn, of which it ate a 
good deal. Meyer adds to the list of food “ Marine 
plants and insects, the remains of which are found 
in its stomach, namely, beetles and other insects 
and their larvee, and small pebbles.” 
The Whitefronted Goose in its wild state does 
not breed in this country, nor can I find any 
description of its nest. In confinement it has been 
known to breed, and has done so in the Zoological 
Gardens, and it has also been known to cross with 
the Bernicle Goose. 
The bill is of a reddish flesh-colour, the nail or 
hard part at the tip is white; the irides dark brown ; 
all round the base of the upper mandible as far back 
as the middle of the forehead is a patch of white, 
above that a narrow dark, almost black, band; rest 
of the head and the neck all round greyish brown ; 
the back and scapulars a darker shade of the same, 
each feather tipped with dirty white; rump nearly 
black; tail-coverts white; lesser wing-coverts and 
tertials rather darker than the back and without the 
dirty white tips; greater coverts of secondaries the 
same, but narrowly tipped with white, the tips 
2R3 
