GREY-LAG GOOSE.— ^nser ferus. 



BEAN GOOSE.— .4JISCI- scgetum. 



adult Domestic Gander seems to be the result of careful breeding, probably because white 

 feathers sell at a higher price than the dark and grey plumes. In a state of domestication 

 the Goose lives to a great age, and when treated kindly becomes strongly attached to its 

 friends, and assumes quite an eccentric character. Of the breeding and management of 

 the Goose nothing can be said in these pages, the reader being referred to the numerous 

 extant works on domestic poultiy. When wild its flavour is not so delicate as after it 

 has been domesticated and properly fed, and when a wild Goose is shot in the northern 

 climates the sportsman always buries it in the earth some hours before cooking it, a 

 process which removes the rank savour of the flesh. Even the fishy-flavoured sea-birds 

 can be rendered eatable by this curious process. 



The Grey-Lag Goose may be known from its congeners by the pinky bill, with its 

 white horny nail at the tip of the mandible. The head, nape, and upper part of the 

 back are ashen brown, and the lower part of the back bluish grey. The quill-feathers are 

 leaden grey ; the chin, neck, and breast are grey ; and the abdomen white. The average 

 length of the adult male is not quite three feet. 



The Bean Goose is another of oxir English examples of this genus, but is only 

 a visitant of our .shores, having its chief residence in the Arctic circle and high northern 

 latitudes, and coming southward about October. 



Mr. Selby mentions that the Bean Goose breeds annually upon several of the 

 Sutherland lakes, and in some places it becomes nearly as tame as the common species, 

 but refuses to associate with them. These birds fly in flocks, varying in form according 

 to their size, a little band always flying in Indian file, while a large flock assumes a 



