TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 131 
utility of trying a series of experiments to ascertain whether (as apparently indicated 
by the Town Malling discovery) the Bombyx mori could not be reared upon plants of 
indigenous growth, and without that amount of care and expense which have hitherto 
been considered indispensable. 
On the British Wild Geese. By A. StrRicKLAND. 
Geese are a natural group of birds possessing several strongly marked characters ; 
some of them are so alike in plumage that that important character can hardly be 
taken as an element to assist in discriminating the species; the form and colour of 
their bills and legs, and the habits of the birds in a state of nature being all we can 
safely rely upon : besides this, from their shy nature, they are the most difficult birds 
_ to study; from these circumstances the authors of British Birds seem not to have 
duly examined the characters of the species they describe. Mr. Gould has given us 
but three species of British Wild Geese, confusing two species under the mysterious 
name of Segetum, or Bean Goose. 
Anas albifrons, White-fronted Goose.—The plumage will mark this species; it is 
not, or probably never was, a regular migratory species in this country, but is found 
in hard weather frequenting running streams and swampy ground singly, or in small 
groups; but is stated to be found in large migratory flocks on the continents of 
Europe and America. 
Anas ferus or Anger, neyer was a migratory species in this country, but per- 
manently resided and bred in the Carrs of Yorkshire, and probably the fens of Lin- 
colnshire; but it has long since been banished from these places, but still breeds 
sparingly in the Western Islands of Scotland. This bird displays the same delicate 
pink colour in its bill when young, as the Bean Goose does in its legs, and which 
has eroneously been considered a distinct species, under the name of Pink-footed 
Goose. 
From time immemorial one of the features of the north and east of England has been 
the regular periodical appearance of countless flocks of wild geese which arrive about 
the end of harvest, and which received the name of Bean Goose as coming in the time of 
bean harvest, and when the bean stubbles were ready for them. This species is the 
only one that hus any claims to the name of Bean Goose (or Segetum), the only migratory 
species in this country, and the only abundant and common species we have. Unaccounte 
able as the case may appear, this bird is not figured or characterized in any workot 
Natural History I am acquainted with, and is not mentioned in the works of Mr. Yar- 
rell, Mr. Gould, or Morris, further than ascribing the habits of this bird to one given 
by these authors under the figure and description of an entire different species under 
the erroneous name of Segetum, or Bean Goose. Some years ago, Mr. Bartlet, struck 
with the difference between the geese he met with in the market and the descrip- 
tions and drawings given of the Bean Goose, was induced to constitute a new species 
under the name of Pink-footed Goose; but this was an erroneous view of the matter, 
being in fact the young or immature bird of the true Bean Goose. This bird, the 
true Segetum, or Bean Goose, or Short-biiled Goose, is distinguished by its short and 
strong bill, its depth at the base being nearly two-thirds of its length, and by its 
migratory habits differing in that respect from all our other geese arriving every 
autumn, spreading during the day time over the stubbles and clover fields on the 
Wolds and other open districts, rising like clock-work in the evening, and winging 
its way in long strings to the sand-bank in the Humber, and other safe retreats for 
the night, returning as punctually in the morning to its feeding-grounds. This bird 
differs from the Pink-footed Goose in being larger, having a stronger bill and lighter 
plumage; but these differences are the result of age, not of species, and due exami- 
nation will confirm this. The next bird to be considered is the Long-billed Goose, 
figured and described by Mr. Yarrell, Mr. Gould, and Mr. Morris under the name of 
Segeium, or Bean Goose. This is distinguished by having the bill exactly twice the 
length of the depth at the base, a proportion quite different from the Short-billed 
Goose. Before the beginning of this century, when the Carrs of Yorkshire were the 
resort of countless numbers of wild-fowl, it was stated that there were two species 
of geese frequenting and breeding in the Carrs, known to the fowlers by the name 
- of the Carr Lag and the Grey Lag. What the Grey Lag was is well known. The 
Q* 
