ANSEE ALBIFRONS ALBIFROXS 87 



that it was not half so common as the bean-goose. He obtained 

 three eggs and also a gosling in down, but gives no details of how 

 he obtained them. 



According to Middendorff, who took the nest and eggs of this 

 species in the Taimyr Peninsula on the 10th July, the former was 

 placed in a cone-shaped tussock of grass, plentifully furnished with 

 down from the parent's breast. Again, on August '2nd, he obtained 

 eggs, so that it would appear that it is a late breeder. The 

 Eastern form f/ambeli might possibly straggle into Burma. 



Alpheraky, who does not separate A. ganihcU and A. albifroiis. 

 describes the eggs as being between 3"48 X 2'2'2 in length and 

 2'99 X 1'94 inches in breadth. A clutch is usually stated as 

 5, 6 or 7, but there is no doubt that the numlier is sometimes 

 greater, and I have one of <"-> in my own collection. 



The eggs do not differ from the eggs of the grey lag, except 

 in being smaller, and, in each case, a decidedly longer, narrower 

 oval. In size they average 3'1'.) X I'l'I inches, exactly the same 

 as twenty-four eggs of Gobcl's. 



Hartert gives the measurements of eighty-one eggs as follows : — ■ 



Average ... 78'34 X 53'39 mm. 



Maxima ... §£2 ^ oB'o ,, and 85'0 X .;.9'0 mm. 



Minima ... 7£S X 51'0 „ and 75'G X 4!)_d „ 



General Habits. — In parts of its range the White-fronted Goose 

 occurs in immense numbers and in the Kharkov Governments it is 

 said to swarm in tens of thousands. 



Alpheraky says that : — 



" White-fronted Geese during their migrations fly, like other 

 geese, in a chain, key, or cone, while sometimes from one side of 

 the angle extends a chain forming a second angle, and in such 

 cases these geese usually fly high. In short flights, they go in a 

 disorderly crowd. Flocks of several thousand, as observed by 

 Mr. A. Brauner on the Dneister, I have never seen, but I often 

 observed 200 or 300 birds in a pack, but more often in gaggles of 

 70 to 150 or in smaller ones of 40 to 50. 



" In the Don steppes I have flushed swarms of these geese 

 amounting to tens of thousands, but having once risen, these hosts 

 immediately broke up into comparatively small flocks, and flew off, 

 one after another, either to another part of the steppe or to water, 

 uttering all the time tlioir loud, laughing cackle. 



