Goose-shooting 231 



fords, it visits the grain-fields, greedily feeding on 

 the corn and wheat stubble. The bird is excel- 

 lent for the table, particularly the young. Other 

 names for this species are laughing goose, speckled 

 belly, speckled brant, gray brant. 



BEAN GOOSE 



(Anser fabalis) 



Adult male and female — Upper parts, dark brown, edged with gray- 

 ish white ; head and neck, grayish brown, darkest on the head, 

 with a white patch on forehead ; rump, brownish black ; wings, 

 brown ; coverts, grayish, edged with white ; breast, pale brown ; 

 sides and flanks, brown with pale edges ; upper and under tail- 

 coverts, abdomen, and vent, white ; bill, black with a middle 

 part of deep orange ; iris, dark brown ; legs and feet, orange. 



Measurements — Length, 32 inches; wing, 19 inches; culmen, 2.30 

 inches; tarsus, 3.10 inches. 



Female averages somewhat smaller than the male. 



Habitat — Breeds in northern Europe and northern Asia, from 

 Russian Lapland east to the Yenisei River, and north to Nova 

 Zembla. Winters south to southern Europe, northern Africa, 

 China, etc. Recorded from northern Greenland. 



The only reason for admitting the bean goose 

 to the check-list of North American birds is the 

 fact that a single specimen in the museum at 

 Copenhagen is stated to have come from Green- 

 land. 



Though often common in Europe and Asia in 

 migrations and in winter, the bean goose, like so 

 many others of its relatives, seeks the far North 

 to raise its young. There it lays five or six eggs. 

 It feeds in the open fields, is very shy, and is less 



