Family ANATID^. Genus Anser. 



Subfamily Anserinm. 



GRAY LAG GOOSE. 



ANSER CINEREUS— ^ey^^. 



Geographical Distribution.— ^rzVM .■ Most probably the 

 original form from which the domestic Goose was derived. 

 Formerly bred in the fens and marshes of East Anglia, but for 

 nearly a hundred years now has ceased to do so, the reclamation 

 of so much of the swampy wastes in this district causing it to 

 forsake its ancient strongholds. Its only breeding places now 

 are in the north of Scotland, especially in the Outer Hebrides, as 

 I know from personal experience, in Ross, Sutherland, and 

 Caithness. In Ireland a colony of birds in a half-domestic state 

 have their breeding place on the lake at Castle Coole, the seat of 

 Lord Belmore in Co. Monaghan. Winter visitor to the British 

 Islands, accidental in the Orkneys and Shetlands, rare on 

 the east coast of Scotland, more abundant on the east coast 

 of England, but rare on the south. Rare on the west coasts 

 of England and Scotland, and very local in Ireland, mostly 

 in the central counties and the sea lough at the mouth of the 

 Shannon. Foreign: Palsearctic region; northern Oriental 

 region in winter. Breeds throughout Scandinavia and Denmark, 

 and Russia below the Arctic Circle in all suitable localities south 

 to the Caucasus. Breeds sparingly in North Germany, and still 

 more rarely in Holland and South-western Spain ; and is known 

 to do so in the valley of the Danube. Eastwards it may pro- 

 bably breed in Central Persia and in the valley of the Obb as 

 far north as the Arctic Circle, but in the remainder of Siberia it 

 does not appear to extend north of Lake Baikal. It breeds in 

 the upper valley of the Amoor, in Mongolia, and Turkestan. On 



