GEESE. 309 



GEESE (Anser). 



The geese may be regarded as the least dabbling and the 

 most vegetable in their feeding of all the division. They 

 have the bill of moderate length, the height at the base 

 exceeding the width, and the breadth diminishing towards 

 the tip. The length of the bill is, in all the species, less than 

 that of the head, the serratures on the margins of the bill 

 are conical, and the bill itself has a slight resemblance to that 

 form. Their legs are longer than are those of most of the 

 order, and placed farther forward, so that they more imme- 

 diately support the centre of gravity of the body, and the 

 birds walk better ; but the legs are wide apart, so that they 

 may act free of the sides in swimming ; and the weight in 

 consequence swings from side to side as the bird walks, pro- 

 ducing a zigzag or waddling motion. Geese reside in marshes 

 and damp meadows rather than in the waters ; they do not 

 swim much, and they never dive. There is no external dis- 

 tinction of the sexes, and little or no seasonal change in the 

 plumage. They migrate in packs which are not generally 

 very numerous ; and they fly in wedge-shaped or angular 

 lines, with the one flank of the angle longer than the other, 

 and from time to time shift the leading bird, and also the 

 relative numbers in the flanks. There is generally a single 

 bird in advance, and another in the rear and a little without 

 the largest flank of the angle. 



The geese may, in a state of nature, be all considered as 

 only winter visitants in the more thickly inhabited places of 

 all parts of the world, and in Britain they are all decidedly 

 so : for, though some of the common grey species continue to 

 breed in the fens in England, and also some of the smaller 

 wild ones in the more remote parts of Scotland, they keep 

 very close in the breeding season, and do not appear much 



