THE WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 437 



second class, and well deserves the patronage of those who 

 have even a small piece of grass. Its natural history in a wild 

 state is fully detailed in Mr. Yarrell's valuable "British Birds;" 

 the figure also is very good, though it is a pity that a pair of Geese 

 were not given ; but as the works of that gentleman, like every 

 other original book on the subject, have been largely drawn 

 upon, I refrain from borrowing what he has written, particu- 

 larly as the object of this volume is, not to encroach upon the 

 department of the systematic naturalist, but merely to state 

 what has been observed of birds that have been reclaimed. 



The first impression of every one who saw the White-fronted 

 Groose in confinement, would be that it could not be trusted 

 with liberty ; and the .sight of it, exercising its wings at its 

 first escape, would make its owner despair of recovering it. A 

 pair of young ones that were bred in this country were kindly 

 supplied to me, and though they were evidently not wild, their 

 friskiness and vivacity were such, that it appeared best to 

 shorten the quill-feathers of one wing, and so deprive them of 

 the power of flight till their next moult. Long before that 

 time, however, their confidence and attachment removed all 

 hesitation as to the future. Now, at the most distant sound 

 of my voice, they will come flying, like Pigeons, to alight at 

 my feet ; and occasionally, particularly in winter and spring, 

 perform graceful evolutions in the air, that show great power 

 of wing and enjoyment in its exercise. They are perfectly 

 unrestrained, except that the kitchen-garden is forbidden to 

 them. During the severe weather in the winter of 1846-7, 

 while the herbage was buried deep under the snow, we feared 

 they might be tempted to join some of their travelling re- 

 lations that now and then passed overhead ; but we swept a 

 spot bare in the orchard, to amuse them with the idea of grass, 

 threw down a few Savoy cabbages, gave them a little extra 

 corn, and, though they would fly over the house, to get at a 

 spring where the water was still unfrozen, they showed no wish 



37* 



