THE WHITE-FRONTED WILD GOOSE. 313 



ones used to continue there during the whole of the winter? 

 if the small lakes and pools remained clear of ice. They 

 lodged for the night in the water, were very watchful, and 

 difficult to be got near, so that regular turf fences were 

 erected for the purpose of getting shots at them ; but the 

 sport was generally more tedious than successful, and the 

 game, when obtained, tough, and of inferior value. 



THE WHITE-FRONTED WILD GOOSE (Anser erytliTOpus). 



This is another winter visitant, not known to breed in any 

 part of Britain, though it appears regularly in the season. It 

 is understood to breed on the eastern parts of Europe, but 

 farther northward than the grey goose, though little is known 

 of its breeding ground in Europe. On the American conti- 

 nent it breeds in the marshy tracts around Hudson's Bay, 

 which bear at least some resemblance to those of the north- 

 east of Russia. This species has the bill and feet orange, and 

 the nail on the bill whitish ; the forehead is white, head and 

 neck greyish brown ; rest of the upper part brown, with the 

 margins of the feathers paler ; primary quills and tips of the 

 secondaries black ; tail dusky with white margins, under part 

 white, with a few dusky feathers intermixed on the breast 

 and belly. The young have the white on the front partially 

 broken by dusky feathers. 



This species arrives rather later in the season than the other ; 

 and on the coasts of the fenny districts, and in the southern 

 and eastern parts of England generally, it is more abundant 

 than the bean goose, though much less so in Scotland or in 

 the interior, being seldom found at any great distance inland 

 on the rivers, unless when the weather is very severe on the 

 coast. These birds disappear from our shores about March, 

 a little sooner or later according to the state of the weather. 

 One of the local names of this species is the laughing goose ; 

 a character to which it does not appear to have much 



