166 



CHAPTEE XXI. 



The Geese. The Swans. 



WILD geese are so common in the Scandinavian penin- 

 sula that it is the custom in Sweden to capture large 

 numbers of them in nets; at other times, regular 

 battues are held, when hundreds are shot, knocked on 

 v the head with sticks, or even taken alive in the 'melee. 

 In Swedish and Norwegian Lapland it is a common 

 practice to set steel traps near the water, which capture 

 the geese when they come to feed. 



The gray-legged goose (Anser ferus) is said to be 

 the stock-bird of our domesticated species. It is 

 common in summer on the north and north-west coast 

 of Norway, where it breeds ; it is also common during 

 the breeding-season on the small islands north of 

 Bergen, especially on Smolen and Hitteren, near 

 Throndjem. Kjaerbolling says that it breeds in Den- 

 mark, but is much less common there now than it was 

 formerly. Pontoppidan speaks of having seen immense 

 flocks of this species off the coast of Nordland, and 

 near Bergen and Throndjem. 



Nilsson asserts that the gray-legged goose breeds only 



