466 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



under tail-coverts and hinder part of the flanks 

 white ; legs, toes, webs and claws black. This de- 

 scription is taken from a young bird of the year, 

 shot at Exmouth during the first week in December. 

 Younger birds have no white band on the neck, and 

 in older birds the feathers on the upper parts are 

 darker and not so broadly edged with dirty white. 



The eggs are said to be of a greyish white 

 colour. 



EGYPTIAN GOOSE, Anser egyptiacus. Whether 

 Ihis beautiful Goose really visits this country in a 

 perfectly wild state and of its own free will may 

 appear doubtful, but so many specimens have from 

 time to time occurred, both in this and many other 

 counties, that it is now considered British, and 

 included in all works upon British Birds : Yarrell, 

 for instance, mentions a flock of eighty having been 

 seen in Hampshire, during some tremendous gales 

 from the West, as long ago as the year 1824, and 

 others, but in smaller numbers, in 1823. I should 

 very much doubt if sufficient numbers had been 

 domesticated in this country at that time to allow of 

 such a numerous flock being found at large. Its 

 head-quarters seem to be Northern Africa and parts 

 of the Mediterranean. 



As far as our own county is concerned, specimens 

 have occurred in various parts of it from time to 

 time since the year 1840 (in the February of which 

 year Yarrell says four were shot on the Severn near 



