GREY-LEGGED GOOSE. 55 



were confined together by themselves for a few days, became 

 immediately very good friends, and a sitting of eight eggs 

 was the consequence. 



There is, however, some reason to believe that one other 

 species, at least, has had some share in establishing our pre- 

 sent domestic race. Almost all the species of Geese, Swans, 

 Ducks, and Mergansers, are remarkable for the peculiar form 

 of their organ of voice, or windpipe, and so peculiar as well 

 as permanent is this anatomical character, that the males of 

 the British species of this family, consisting of about forty, 

 almost all of them, but more particularly the Swans, Ducks 

 and Mergansers, can be immediately identified by the examina- 

 tion of this organ alone. Figures of these will be hereafter 

 introduced as vignettes to the species to which they belong. 

 In the Wild Grey-legged Goose the tube of the windpipe is 

 nearly cylindrical, and this form of trachea I have frequently 

 found on examination of domestic geese intended for the table ; 

 but I have also frequently found the tube flattened at the 

 lower portion, a character which is constant in the Anser albi- 

 Jrons, or White-fronted Goose ; and there are few persons 

 well acquainted with the appearance of our domestic geese 

 who have not observed in many of them the white ring of fea- 

 thers round the base of the beak extending a little upwards on 

 the forehead, from which the Anser albifrons derives one of 

 its names : the figure of the White-fronted Goose, the fourth 

 species here given, will exhibit this mark. The legs of many 

 of our domestic geese are orange coloured, like those of the 

 white fronted ; the legs of the Wild Grey-legged Geese are 

 of a pale flesh colour. The white colour of the horny termi- 

 nation 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, is probably caused by domes- 

 tication and selection. 



The Grey-legged Wild Goose is said to have been former- 



