The True Geese. 51 



this time, the birds were beginning to 

 moult. 



In the British Museum there are four 

 eggs of this Goose, taken in Greenland. 

 Three are much stained, and are of a 

 dirty yellow colour. One is of a dull 

 white colour. They average 3*1 in length 

 and 2 '05 in breadth. In shape they are 

 broad ovals, and the shell is fairly smooth. 



In the adult bird the forehead, for a 

 distance of about three-quarters of an 

 inch from the bill, a broad band on either 

 side the base of the upper mandible, 

 and the whole chin are white, edged 

 everywhere by an ill-defined blackish 

 band. The remainder of the head and 

 the whole neck are brown, paler on the 

 sides of the face and on the throat, 

 mottled darker on the crown. The 

 mantle, back, scapulars, and the longer 

 inner secondaries are ashy brown, each 

 feather margined with greyish white. 

 The rump is dark brown or blackish, and 

 the upper tail-coverts white. The two 

 middle tail-feathers are ashy brown, 

 broadly tipped with white. The others 

 are basally brown, terminally white. The 

 upper part of the breast is pale ashy grey, 

 each feather edged paler. The remainder 

 of the lower plumage is more or less 



