WILD-FOWL: GEESE 



189 



Some ten or twelve years ago there was killed on 

 the Northumbrian coast the first rightly authenticated 

 specimen of the lesser White-fronted goose, the Anser 

 erythropus of Linnaeus. Like the rest of the grey geese, 

 the White-fronted goose is subject to great and 

 conflicting variations in size both of body and of bill. 

 As a consequence this species has been subdivided into 

 three forms : ist, the typical Anser albifrons, the 

 common British White-fronted goose ; 2nd, Anser 

 gambeli, the form met with on the North American 

 continent, and which, Mr. Howard Saunders states, is a 

 considerably larger bird than that last-named and has, 

 besides, a good deal more black on the breast, abdomen, 

 and flanks, also much darker under wing-coverts ; 3rd, 

 the Anser erythropus, or, as some naturalists prefer to 

 designate it, Dwarf goose, A. albifrons minutus, men- 

 tioned above as shot by a north-country wild-fowler. 

 This last is mainly characterized by its smaller size, 

 being little larger than a mallard ; its plumage, too. is 

 somewhat darker than that of the common type. It 

 has a short, straight-ridged bill, forming a line with the 

 forehead, and fully adult birds have the white-fronted 

 patch of feathers extending over almost the whole 

 anterior half of their heads. 



The attention of sportsmen was recently aroused by 

 the statement that another new Bean goose may be 

 added to the British list. Mr. F. W. Frohawk has 

 stated in The Field that as hitherto only two species of 

 this group have been recognized as occurring in Great 

 Britain, viz. the Pink-footed goose, Anser brachyrhynchns, 

 and the Bean goose, Anser segetum, he proposed to add 

 another Bean goose known as Anser arvensis, which for 

 general purposes of identification might be termed 



