212 BIRD -LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



pitch on water, mud, or ooze ; or, in short, in any position 

 in which a stanchion-gun can be brought to bear upon 

 them. 



The fourth species of the group is the White-fronted 

 Goose (Anser albifrons) ; and it is a remarkable fact, and 

 one strongly corroborative of the uncertainty which, as I 

 hold, surrounds our knowledge of these birds, that of the 

 merely trifling number of specimens which we have been 

 able to secure, one has proved to belong to a fifth species, 

 hitherto unknown in the British Isles. This is the Lesser 

 White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus of Linnaeus), a bird 

 which breeds on the Lapland fjelds, but appears to be of 

 more easterly distribution in winter, frequenting the coasts 

 of Greece and Egypt, especially the great lagoons of the 

 Nile Delta, though I have recently heard of its occurrence 

 in Spain at that season. This addition to the British 

 avifauna was made by my brother Alfred, who shot a young 

 male of this small Grey Goose on Fenham Flats, on the 

 Northumbrian coast, September 16th, 1886, and the credit 

 of the discovery is due to his correct identification. The 

 specimen is now fully admitted to be an unquestionable ex- 

 ample of Anser erythropus, the only one in existence killed 

 in Great Britain. 



The ordinary White-fronted Goose is more addicted to 

 inland resorts than to the coast, and in the north-east is cer- 

 tainly not a common species, only occurring at intervals, and 

 in small numbers. In the severe frost of January, 1881, a 

 little string of eight passed close over the punt, so near that we 

 could distinctly see their " barred waistcoats." I refrained 

 from taking the chance with a shoulder-gun, judging, from 

 their low flight, that they were about to pitch ; but they 

 passed right on, loudly cachinnating, never shifting brace, 

 tack or sheet while in sight, and left us in the lurch be- 

 fooled once more ! 



I must now bring this chapter of doubts, surmises and 

 uncertainties to an end. It is perhaps humiliating to admit, 

 but the Grey Goose has proved too many for us. There are 

 others among our winter wildfowl whose intense wariness 

 all but sets at naught the most elaborate devices of the 



