202 GEESE AND GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS. 



usually on lonely sand-banks, whither it betakes itself 

 in flocks when the tide withdraws. Its distinguish- 

 ing characteristic is the pink of the legs, from which 

 it derives its name. 



GRAY LAG-GOOSE— 35 inches ; bill flesh-colour, with white 

 nail and no band across ; slight black markings on breast. 



BEAN GOOSE— 34 inches ; bill black, with cross-band yellow ; 

 legs and feet pinkish-yellow. 



WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE— 27 inches; though similar 

 in size, easily distinguished by orange bill, the tract of 

 white about the base of the bill, and the orange legs and 

 feet ; heavy black breast-markings. 



WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE.-Form, like the Gray 

 Lag -Goose (plate 88). 27 inches. Upper parts 

 grayish-brown ; dark slate on shoulder and lower 

 baek ; conspicuous white tract about the base of 

 the bill ; the bill orange, with white nail ; under 

 parts whitish, with heavy black markings on breast ; 

 legs and feet orange. Winter migrant. 



Distribution. — A winter visitor, abundant in Ireland; 

 local in England, chiefly in the south and south-west ; 

 local and irregular on Scottish coasts and islands. 



The White-Fronted Goose is known to us only as 

 a winter visitant from the north. It is visibly 

 smaller than the Gray Lag-Goose, but its habits 

 generally are as described under that bird, though 

 the White-Fronted Goose has earned for itself the 

 title of Laughing Goose by its more rapidly repeated 

 trumpeting note. The characteristics for the identi- 

 fication of the White- Fronted Goose are the white 

 tract at the base of the bill, the heavy black bars on 



