GEESE. 



141 



rule they are gregarious, but are sometimes seen singly, and at others in pairs ; they 

 breed away from the water in thick, grassy, or rushy spots, and lay a number of white 

 eggs with thick, glossy shells." 



Another African form of the same family is the well-known Egyptian or Nile goose 

 (Alopochen cegyptiaca). It is often found figured on the Egyptian monuments, and 

 was known to the ancient Greeks, who called it ' chenalopex,' or fox-goose, either 

 because it breeds in burrows, or on account of its color, which is more or less rusty, 

 especially round the eyes, neck, tertials, arid a spot on the breast. The smaller wing- 

 coverts are white ; a green speculum marks the large coverts ; bill and feet are brilliant 

 red ; a small frontal knob black. As the name indicates, it is an inhabitant of eastern 

 Africa, but is often shot in England and other countries of temperate Europe, though 



FIG. 67. Anser anser, gray-lag goose. 



probably many specimens have been birds which have escaped confinement, for this 

 stately bird, in size equalling the common goose, is often kept for ornament in parks 

 and gardens, also in this country ; and the one which was shot on Long Island in 

 1872 evidently came from this source. The Egyptian goose has no close ally in the 

 Old World, and it is a somewhat extraordinary fact that the Orinoco goose (Alopochen 

 jubata), brown, with green wings and white wing speculum, head, and neck, and with a 

 slight nuchal crest or ' mane,' which inhabits northeastern South America, seems to be 

 congeneric with it. 



Having now disposed of the most outlying forms, there remains the great bulk of the 

 ducks, which we unite in the family ANATID^E, comprising the geese, swans, tree-ducks, 

 ducks proper, and mergansers, groups which may be regarded as sub-families. The geese 

 proper form a well-circumscribed group, characterized by a bill rather high at base, com- 



