ANSERES. ( 90 ) ANATIDM. 



THE WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 



LAUGHING GOOSE, BALD GOOSE, WHITE-FACED GOOSE. 



Anser alhifrons. 



Winter's not gone yet if the Wild Geese fly that way. 



Shakespeare, King Lear. 



I have a wie lairdschip down in the Merse, 

 The nyneteenth pairt of a Gusse's gerse, 

 And I wo' na cum every day to wow. 



Scottish Ballad. 



The White-fronted Goose is very like its Bean and Pink- 

 footed congeners in size, general colour, and appearance, but 

 it may be easily distinguished from them by the white 

 feathers on the forehead and round the base of the bill, and 

 the black bars on the lower part of its breast. It frequents 

 bogs and marshes more than they do, and is not considered 

 to be so difficult to stalk. 



This species probably visits the county in small numbers 

 in autumn and spring, but the only authentic record of its 

 occurrence in Berwickshire, which I have been able to 

 obtain, is that of an example shot in the Sandpit Field, on 

 the farm of Greenknowe, by the gamekeeper of Kimmer- 

 ghame estate, on the 1st of February 1884, who informed 

 me that it was alone when he killed it. It was identified by 

 Mr. George Bolam, Berwick-on-Tweed, shortly afterwards. 



