226 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 
species divide themselves into two distinct groups, 
four of them consisting of the Gray Geese, and two 
the Black Geese. The birds in the former group 
are the least maritime in their haunts, visiting 
the land to feed, whilst those in the latter division 
are inseparably associated with the sea during their 
sojourn in our area. As the former group contains 
the familiar “ Wild Goose ’—which is the original 
stock from which the farmyard Goose has been 
derived—we will deal first with the species con- 
tained in it. 
GRAY LAG GOOSE. 
This fine bird, the type of the genus.Axser, and 
the Anser cinereus of most modern writers, claims 
distinction not only as being the origin of the 
domestic race, but as the one species indigenous 
to the British Islands. For nearly a hundred 
years, however, the Gray Lag Goose has ceased 
to breed in its old haunts, the English Fens; 
it continues to breed, yet very locally, in the 
Hebrides, and in certain parts of the Highlands. 
Its domestication must extend to a very ancient 
date ; yet captivity, beyond increasing its size and 
its fecundity, has caused but trifling variation in 
its colour. The bird, therefore, must be too 
familiar to every reader to require any description 
here. Once apparently so common, the Gray Lag 
Goose is now one of our rarest birds, a fact of great 
significance to the student of the geographical 
distribution or dispersal of species. The deriva- 
