GEESE 



2093 



majority seek the remote regions of the north in which to breed, ranging in winter 

 over the warmer parts of the same Hemisphere. As compared with the swans, 

 their more elevated bodies and relatively-longer legs (in which the tibia is feathered 

 nearly to the ankle) are indicative of more terrestrial habits. In the members of 

 the genus Anser, there is but little if any black in the plumage of the head and 

 neck; the beak and feet are light colored, and usually reddish in the adult, and the 

 tail has sixteen feathers. 



The genus is represented by some twenty species, ranging over the cold and 

 temperate regions of the globe, but becoming almost cosmopolitan in the winter. 

 Of these the typical member is the gray lag goose (A. cinereus), which is probably 

 the parent form of the domesticated breeds, and is the only species which nests in 

 the British Islands. It is characterized by the white or whitish nail on the beak; 

 by the remainder of the beak, together with the feet, being usually flesh colored, 

 although liable to vary from creamy white to purplish red; while the wing coverts 

 and rump are slaty gray. In length, the male measures about thirty-five, and the 

 female thirty inches. Breeding at the present day in the British Islands only, in 

 the north of Scotland and Ireland, 

 the graylag goose ranges all over 

 Europe and North and Central Asia 

 as far east as Amurland, while in 

 winter it spreads over Southern 

 China and Upper India. The 

 white- fronted goose (A. albifrons), 

 of which there is a larger and a 

 smaller variety, is another British 

 species, although only a winter 

 visitant, also found in India during 

 the cold season. It is a much 

 smaller form than the preceding, 

 the length of the larger race only 

 reaching twenty-seven inches, 

 while in the smaller it varies from 

 twenty-four to twenty. The beak 

 is generally orange yellow, with a 

 white nail; the feet being likewise 

 of the former hue; while the fore- 

 head is characterized by the pres- 

 ence of a variable amount of white 

 feathers at the base of the beak; 



and the plumage of the breast is much mottled in the adult with brownish black. 

 The Old- World distribution of this species is very similar to that of the last; but it 

 is found during winter in Northeastern Africa, while it also occurs in Greenland, 

 and is represented in the rest of North America by a variety (A. gambeli}. The 

 smaller form is often termed the dwarf goose. Agreeing nearly in size with 

 the graylag goose, the bean goose (A. segetum) another well-known British 



WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 



