310 NATATORES. 



abroad till the winter. There is some obscurity about their 

 breeding places. It is usually said, that they breed in the 

 arctic regions ; and it may be true that those species which 

 are the most marine in their habits, do disperse themselves 

 on the shores of the remote islands far to the north ; but 

 there are few arctic haunts that would suit the habits of 

 those species that come periodically to the small lakes and 

 pools in our inland places, and even those that resort to the 

 estuaries and shores of the fenny districts. The great swamps 

 that lie to the eastward of the Baltic are as likely to be their 

 principal breeding places as others ; and they may follow the 

 line of that sea westward as the winter sets in. In that 

 part of the world, a westward migration bears, in the com- 

 mencement of winter, some resemblance to a southward 

 migration on some parts of the globe. The winter in the 

 central parts of Russia is as early as severe, and as little 

 adapted to the habits of geese as the winter in Iceland, or 

 even the Faroe Islands ; and as the winter is later and milder 

 as the Atlantic is approached, the probability is, that wherever 

 they may breed, we receive our winter visitation of wild 

 geese, immediately from the east or north-east rather than 

 from the north. 



THE GREY-LAG GOOSE 



This species is generally described as the parent stock of 

 our common domestic goose, of which the varieties in colour 

 are supposed to arise from differences of breeding and treat- 

 ment, as is not unusual among domesticated animals. The 

 eastern and central parts of Europe are certainly the principal 

 localities of this species, which has, of late years, nearly, if 

 not totally, deserted the fens of England as a breeding ground ; 

 and is not nearly so common, even as a winter visitant, as it 

 was in former times. 



