THE WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE 177 
the tip, adapted for cropping vegetable food; the wings are large 
and powerful; the legs, placed under the centre of the body, 
afford some facility in walking, and the webbed feet are eminently 
fitted for paddling, but rarely employed in diving. They spend 
the greater portion of the year in high latitudes, where their arrival 
is celebrated with great rejoicings, as an indication of returning 
summer. They are eminently gregarious, flying generally in the 
form of a half-opened pair of compasses, with the angle in front, 
or in an irregular wavy line, and uttering a loud harsh cry, which 
may often be heard some time before the birds themselves are in 
sight. 
The present species, which is supposed by some to be the origin 
of the domestic Goose, was formerly of common occurrence in 
Great Britain, but is now much less frequent. It breeds in northern 
Scotland, coming south from autumn to spring. On their arrival 
in autumn, they resort to marshes and swamps, meadows, corn- 
fields, and turnip-fields, especially such as are remote from human 
dwellings. There they feed by day on such vegetable substances 
as fall in their way, but they are said to prefer the young shoots of 
corn to any other kind of food. So wary are they and difficult 
of approach, that a ‘ Wild Goose chase’ is a proverbial expression 
for an unsuccessful enterprise. At night they retire to the broad 
flats near the sea, or to the mouths of rivers, where they roost on 
the ground. Yarrell is of opinion} that the term “‘lag”’, as applied 
to this Goose, is either a modification of the English word “lake”, 
the Latin Jacus, or perhaps an abbreviation of the Italian ‘‘lago’’, 
from which latter country it is even probable that we may originally 
have obtained this our domesticated race.’ 
THE WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE 
ANSER ALBIFRONS 
Folded wings reaching a little beyond the tail; bill orange-yellow, the nail 
white ; a large space on the forehead pure white, surrounded by a dusky 
band ; upper plumage ash-brown, varied with grey, dull white, and bluish 
black ; under plumage in front brownish white, with patches and bars 
of black; behind white; irides dark brown; feet orange. Length two 
feet three inches. Eggs white, tinged with buff. 
A REGULAR visitor to the British Isles, coming late in the autumn 
to stay till spring, usually seen in small flocks of from eight to twenty 
birds ; it is entirely graminivorous, and, when undisturbed, usually 
rests at night in any grass-field where it may have been feeding 
in the afternoon. 
Its habits, during its stay in these latitudes, are similiar to those of 
B.B. N 
