158 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
GREY LAG GOOSE. 
ANSER CINEREUS, Meyer. 
Pl. XXV., fig. 1. 
Geogr. distr.— Widely extended throughout the Palearctic region ; 
wintering in N. Africa and India; but not found in America. In 
Great Britain it breeds in the Outer Hebrides, and rarely in Ireland. 
Food.—Seeds, grain, grass, and Mollusca. 
Nest.—Loosely constructed of coarse dry grasses or flags, lined with 
feathers ; the eggs being also covered with down from the breast of the 
female. 
Position of nest.—In a tuft of rank grass or heather. 
Number of eggs.—4-7; usually 5. 
Time of nidification.—IV-V. 
The nest of the Grey Lag Goose is, when first made, 
tolerably well formed, but it gradually gets trampled down. 
The egg of this species was found by my brother, F. H. 
Butler, near Oxford, in May, 1873. The bird, which flew 
up at his approach, directed his attention to it. That this 
bird should breed so far south somewhat surprised me, but 
I do not think that I have hitherto recorded the fact. The 
bird was doubtless a mere straggler. 
Although I have figured eggs of the two species of Geese 
which may breed with us, one illustration would answer for 
both. The ege of this species upon my plate is slightly 
abnormal in shape, being pointed at both ends: the specimen 
is in Mr. Dresser’s collection. The two birds differ in the 
colour of their bills and legs, the bill of the Grey Lag 
being flesh-coloured, with the nail white, that of the Bean 
Goose orange, with the nail, edges, and base black; the 
legs of the Grey Goose are flesh-coloured, but those of the 
Bean Goose orange. 
Mr. Seebohm says that ‘a hundred years ago the Grey 
Lag Goose bred in the fens and marshes of the eastern 
counties of England; but the reclamation of these exten- 
sive wastes has long since driven these birds to seek more 
congenial quarters. Its only breeding-places in the British 
Islands are in Scotland (in Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness) 
and on many of the western islands, and in Ireland on the 
lake at Castle Coole in Co. Monaghan.”—(Hist. Brit. Birds, 
vol. iii.) 
