GEESE 



(Anser cinereus, etc.) 



WILD GEESE are more numerous in winter on many coasts 

 than any other birds, yet curiously enough only one of the 

 half-dozen species that regularly visit the British Islands 

 is a resident in the country. They are all arctic birds, 

 frequenting the wild moors and heaths and tundras of 

 the polar regions, where they rear their young, but are 

 driven south at the approach of winter. The ornitholo- 

 gist may meet with all these British Wild Geese in various 

 haunts during the autumn and winter months. Many of 

 these birds frequent our inland districts, feeding during the 

 daytime on the broad brown stubbles and retiring to the 

 meres and lakes to sleep. Others keep to the coast, especially 

 where the shore of the shallow sea is one vast expanse of 

 mud and salt-marsh, and studded with low sandbanks even 

 at high water. In the latter locality the Brent Goose (Anser 

 brenta), distinguished by its black forehead, throat, and breast, 

 may usually be found between October and March con- 

 gregating in enormous flocks on the mudflats, where it 

 feeds on the grass wrack. Flocks of the much smaller 

 Barnacle Goose (Anser leucopsis), distinguished by its white 

 forehead and cheeks, frequent the same localities, but prefer 

 to feed on the grass by the banks of rivers, coming 

 inshore at stated intervals and returning to the flat banks of 

 mud to sleep, where a good look-out can be kept on every 



