230 BRITISH BIRDS 



pink colour of the bill and feet is found not to be constant, 

 Seebohm says, ' It looks very much as if the pink-footed geese had 

 been long enough hi the arctic climate of Spitzbergen to change the 

 colour of their feet, but not long enough to make the new colour 

 permanent, and that when bred in the warmer climate of this 

 country they had a tendency to hark back to their ancestors. 1 



White-fronted Goose. 



Anser albifrons. 



White on the forehead and at the base of the lower mandible ; 

 upper parts brownish ash ; breast and belly brownish white broadly 

 barred with black ; bill orange-yellow, with a white nail at the tip ; 

 legs and feet orange. Length, twenty-seven inches. 



The white-fronted goose is the fourth and last on our list of grey 

 geese four forms of one species, as some hold and, like the others, 

 it comes to us from the north in whiter, but is more common in 

 Ireland than hi Great Britain. It is like the bean-goose in size, but 

 differs from it hi its white front, and from the grey lag goose in 

 having the under parts more speckled with black feathers. Its 

 voice is most like that of the grey lag, but is more trumpet-like in 

 sound, and the rapidly repeated notes give its cry a laughter-like 

 character ; laughing goose is one of its common names. It breeds 

 farther north than the bean-goose, and its nest is described as a 

 hollow hi the ground lined with dead grass. It lays five to seven 

 creamy white eggs. 



Brent Goose. 



Bernicla brenta. 



Bill, head, throat, and neck black, except a small white patch 

 on each side of the latter ; mantle brownish black with rufous- 

 brown edges ; wing-feathers, rump, and tail black ; coverts white ; 

 upper breast black ; lower breast and belly slate-grey ; legs black. 

 Length, twenty-three inches. 



The brent goose arrives in our islands hi the autumn, and 

 remains through the whiter in suitable localities hi various parts of 

 the coast, from the Orkneys and Shetlands in the north to the 



