164 THE GEESE 



have been derived from the former, since it is distinguished there- 

 from in its exaggeration of features, which in the greylag might 

 almost escape notice. For it will be remembered the greylag shows 

 a more or less distinct line of white around the base of the beak, 

 and indistinct black bars on the chest. These are the distinguishing 

 marks of the whitefronted, by reason of their conspicuous develop- 

 ment at any rate in the adults. It seems, moreover, to be a species 

 in what we may call a state of unstable equilibrium which is char- 

 acteristic of evolving species. At any rate it is subject to great 

 variation in size, and seems to have split up into two or three well- 

 marked races or subspecies. We are here, however, concerned only 

 with the typical form, Anser albifrons, a winter visitant to Great 

 Britain, local in its distribution and erratic in its appearance. Since 

 it resorts, like its congeners, to the arctic regions to breed, occurring 

 in both hemispheres, it is not surprising to find that nothing is 

 known of its life-history at this critical period, though its eggs and 

 nests have been taken frequently. 



Trevor-Batty e, however, lifts the veil, so to speak, for a moment, 

 in his most interesting book, Icebound on Kolguev, wherein he cites 

 a case where a snowy-owl attacked the young of a pair of white- 

 fronted-geese. Both birds came to the rescue. The gander, flying 

 right up at the owl, from the water, struck out with his wings, 

 causing the marauder to beat a retreat. In another place (p. 207) 

 this author remarks that the young, when pursued in the water, will 

 sometimes effect an escape by diving. 



Alpheraky gives us some interesting notes on its migratory 

 movements and flight, gleaned from Eversmann's observations in the 

 neighbourhood of Orenberg. Commenting on the fact that these birds 

 from time to time shift their migration routes, he remarks that on 

 migration they fly like other geese, in a chain, key, or cone ; but on 

 short flights, as when setting forth to feed on the steppes, and back 

 again to water, they travel in a disorderly crowd, or in a bunch. In 

 the Don steppes Alpheraky says he has flushed them in swarms of 



