GEET LAG GOOSE — WHITE-rRONTED GOOSE. 189 



which was ' always common in the winter months, and in 

 some years imusually abimdant'' [Zoologist, p. 2622). In a 

 subsequent volume of the same periodical, in reply to a sug- 

 gestion of Mr. J. H. Gurney, they state that their note 

 upon Anser ferus seemed more properly to refer to the Pink- 

 footed Goose (to be treated of presently). That the present 

 species occurred in Oxon in former days is highly probable, 

 but it must be confessed that the actual evidence of its 

 occurrence is extremely slender. The Rev. A. Matthews, 

 who is well acquainted with the appearance of the different 

 species of grey geese upon the wing, when writing to me in 



1887, says that on one occasion he was near enough to fire 

 at 'three very large Geese, with the unsatisfactory result 

 of obtaining a few body feathers ; these birds I believe were 

 Grey Lags '' {in lit.). 



THE WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. \ U ^- 



Anser alhifrons. 



The White-fronted Goose is a winter visitor, appearing 

 ' in small flocks, but is an uncertain visitor, and only found 

 in the severest seasons' [Zoologist, p. 2538). The Rev. A. 

 Matthews has recently informed me that he has often seen 

 it brought into Oxford Market, and also, on the wing, large 

 flocks of this ' easily recognised ' species in the neighbourhood 

 of Weston-on-the-Green. It is now of much more un- 

 common occurrence; the enclosure of Otmoor, so attractive 

 to wildfowl in its open condition, doubtless causing a great 

 decrease in the number of all kinds of Wild Geese visiting 

 the county. 



During a spell of severe weather in the early spring of 



1888, a White-fronted Goose was shot from a flock of eight 

 or nine at North Aston Mill. It is a very small bird, ap- 

 proaching A. erythropus in some points. The bill from the 

 gape measures barely two inches ; culmen (the ridge of which 

 forms a straight line with the forehead), one and thirteen- 



