GOOSE 373 
into Western Europe about the year 1856. In this the scapulars 
are elongated, curled, and spirally twisted, having their shaft 
transparent, and so thin that it often splits into fine filaments, 
which, remaining free for an inch or more, often coalesce again.} 
The other British species of typical Geese are the Bean-Goose, 
A. segetum, the Pink-footed, 4. brachyrhynchus, and the White- 
fronted, A. albifrons. On the continent of Europe, but not yet 
recognized as occurring in Britain, is a small form of the last, A. 
erythropus, which is known to breed in Lapland. All these, for the 
sake of discrimination, may be divided into two groups—(1) those 
having the “nail” at the tip of the bill white, or of a very pale 
flesh colour, and (2) those in which this “nail” is black. ‘To the 
former belong the Grey Lag Goose, as well as A. albifrons and A. 
erythropus, and to the latter the other two. A. albifrons and A. 
erythropus, which hardly differ but in size,—the last being not 
much bigger than a MALLARD,—may be readily distinguished from 
the Grey Lag Goose by their bright orange bill and legs, and their 
mouse-coloured upper wing-coverts, to say nothing of their very 
conspicuous white face and the broad black bars which cross the 
belly, though the two last characters are occasionally observable to 
some extent in the Grey Lag Goose, which has the bill and legs 
flesh-coloured, and the upper-wing coverts of a bluish-grey. Of the 
second group, with the black “nail,” 4. segetwm has the bill long, 
black at the base and orange in the middle; the feet are also 
orange, and the upper wing-coverts mouse-coloured, while dA. 
brachyrhynchus has the bill short, bright pink in the middle, and the 
feet also pink, the upper wing-coverts being nearly of the same 
bluish-grey as in the Grey Lag Goose. Eastern Asia possesses in 
A. grandis a third species of this group, which chiefly differs from 
A. segeium in its larger size. In North America there is only one 
species of typical Goose, and that belongs to the white-“ nailed” 
group. It very nearly resembles 4. albifrons, but is larger, and 
-has been described as distinct under the name of A. gambeli. 
Central Asia and India possess in the Bar-headed Goose, 4. indicus, 
1 Want of space forbids our entering on the breeding of tame Geese, which 
was formerly so largely practised in some English counties, especially Norfolk 
and Lincoln. It was no uncommon thing for a man to keep a stock of a 
thousand, each of which might be reckoned to rear on an average seven Goslings. 
The fiocks were regularly taken to pasture and water, just as sheep are, and the 
man who tended them was called the Gooseherd, corrupted into Gozzerd. The 
birds were plucked five times in the year, and in autumn the flocks were driven 
to London or other large markets. They travelled at the rate of about a mile an 
hour, and would get over nearly ten miles in the day. For further particulars 
the reader may be referred to Pennant’s British Zoology ; Montagu’s Ornithological 
Dictionary ; Latham’s General History of Birds ; Stevenson’s Birds of Norfolk ; 
and Rowley’s Ornithological Miscellany (ili. pp. 206-215), where some account 
also may be found of the Goose-fatting at Strassburg. 
