316 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Qenus ANSER, or Typical Geese. 



Type, ANSBE CINEEEUS. 



Anser, of Bechstein (1803). — As Bechstein was the first naturalist properly 

 to define the Geese, tie has far more claim to the genus than Brisson, whose 

 Anser is a confused and bewildered mass of distantly related species. The birds 

 comprising the present genus are characterised by the absence of a cere, having 

 the lores feathered and the metatarsus reticulated. The wings are long and 

 ample, but not acutely pointed ; the tail is short and rounded, and said to contain 

 sixteen feathers. The bill is nearly as long as, not longer than, the head, and has 

 a strongly defined unguis or nail at the tip ; the inner edge of the mandibles is 

 crooked and the lamellae are conspicuous; nostrils lateral. The neck is much 

 shorter than in Gygnus. Three toes in front webbed, one behind small and 

 elevated. 



This genus is composed of about ten species, which are distributed throughout 

 the colder and temperate regions of the Northern hemisphere ; more cosmopolitan 

 in winter than in summer. Six species and subspecies are British, but one only 

 of these breeds within our Islands. 



The typical Geese are dwellers on moors and marshes and more or less 

 cultivated plains, but in winter they become more maritime. They are birds of 

 rapid if somewhat laboured flight, swim well, and walk with equal facility. Their 

 notes are loud and unmusical. They subsist chiefly on vegetable substances. 

 They make bulky nests upon the ground, and their eggs are numerous and 

 creamy-white in colour. They are monogamous, and probably pair for life, the 

 male assisting the female in family duties. They are gregarious in winter, and 

 more or less social even in the breeding season. Their flesh is palatable. 



