72 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



sand of that name ; they also visit the coast of England. Buffon 

 relates that in the severe winters of 1740 and 1765, during the 

 prevalence of a strong north w^ind, the Brant visited the coast of 

 Picardy in France, in prodigious numbers, and committed great 

 depredations on the corn, tearing it up by the roots, trampling 

 and devouring it, and notwithstanding the exertions of the in- 

 habitants, who were constantly employed in destroying them, 

 they continued in great force until a change of weather carried 

 them off." — Wilson's A?nerican Ornitliology. 



THE WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 



Anser Albifrons ; Bonap. Syn. Anser Alhifrons, Laughing Goose; 

 Sw. Sf Rich. Wliite-fronted Goose ; Nutt. Man. 



" Specific Character. — Head and neck grayish-brown ; at the 

 base of the upper mandible, a white band. Adult with the bill 

 carmine-red ; with the unguis white ; head and neck grayish- 

 brown ; a white band, margined behind with blackish-brown, 

 on the anterior part of the forehead, along the bill ; general 

 color of back, deep-gray, the feathers of its fore part broadly 

 tipped with grayish-brown — the rest with grayish-white ; hind 

 part of back deep-gray ; wings grayish-brown ; toward the 

 edge, ash-gray — as are the primary coverts, and outer webs of 

 the primaries ; the rest of the primaries and secondaries, gray- 

 ish-black, the latter with a narrow edge of grayish-white^ — the 

 former edged and tipped with white ; breast, abdomen, lower 

 tail coverts, sides of rump, and upper tail coverts, white ; the 

 breast and sides patched with brownish-black — on the latter in- 

 termixed with grayish-brown feathers ; tail rounded, feet orange, 

 claws white ; length, twenty-seven and a half inches ; wing, 

 fourteen and a half inches. 



" On the coast of Long Island, this Goose is exceedingly 

 rare. The cabinet of the Lyceum of Natural History, New- 

 York, contains a specimen that was shot at Babylon. Accord- 



