100 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



domestic stock. The distinguishing characters 

 of the first named are frequently met with 

 among our tame birds, whose colours approximate 

 to those of the wild type ; such as the wings 

 being of a lighter tint than the upper parts of 

 the body, as well as in the pale flesh colour of 

 the legs, while others again have the orange 

 coloured legs and white forehead of anser albi- 

 frons. The strongest presumptive evidence, how- 

 ever, in favour of anser ferus being the founder 

 of the family is furnished by a fact mentioned by 

 Mr. Yarrell. A pinioned wild gander of this 

 kind, which had never associated with either 

 bean goose or white fronted goose although 

 both were kept in the same piece of water with 

 him at the gardens of the Zoological Society of 

 London was in 1841 introduced to a female of 

 the domestic goose, which was selected for the 

 experiment from the circumstance of her plumage 

 exhibiting the distinctive marks of the true grey 

 lag. The two birds were kept together for a few 

 days, and the result was a matrimonial alliance 

 and a nest of eight eggs. The bean goose (anser 

 segetum), again, is very similar in general aspect 

 to the grey lag and to the white fronted ; but 

 may be at once distinguished from the former by 

 the nail at the end of the beak being black instead 

 of white, by the darker hue of the wings and 



