OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 327 



Family ANATID^. Genus Ansbb. 



Subfamily Ansebinm. 



LESSER WHITE=FRONTED GOOSE. 



ANSEE EEYTHEOPUS.— (Lmnatis). 



Anas erythropus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 197 (1766). 



Anser erythropus (Linn.), Newton, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 341 ; Dresser, B. Bur. 

 vi. p. 383 (1879) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 263 (1885) ; Salvadori, Cat. B. 

 Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 97 (1895). 



Anser albifrons minutus, Naumann ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 505 (1885) : 

 Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 153 (1894); Seebohm, Col. Pig. 

 Eggs Brit. B. p. 33, pi. 12 (1896). 



Geographical distribution.— SriitisA.- There can be no possible doubt 

 that the Lesser White-fronted Goose — the small race of the White-fronted 

 Goose — is a regular visitor to the British Islands during winter, although never 

 apparently so numerous as its larger relation. Be this as it may, there is an old 

 saying by an ornithologist nov7 passed avyay, " What is hit is history, and what 

 is missed is mystery," which applies not only to this species but to all other rare 

 birds that pay us their uncertain and irregular visits, and the only claim of this 

 small Goose to rank as " British " rests, so far as I am aware, upon one recorded 

 occurrence. England: Northumberland, Holy Island (one example), September, 

 1886. Foreign : Northern Palsearctic region ; more southerly in winter. It breeds 

 in the northern districts of Scandinavia, and thence across Arctic Eussia and 

 Siberia at least as far as the valley of the Yenisei. The range of this species, 

 however, both in summer and winter and during migration, is very imperfectly 

 known, but, so far as it can be traced, it appears to be almost identical with that 

 of the large form of this Goose. 



Allied forms. — Anser albifrons, the large race of the White-fronted 

 Goose, a British species, and dealt with fully in the preceding chapter. A. 

 gamheli, the Nearctic representative race, previously alluded to (Conf. p. 325). 



Habits. — Owing to the confusion of the two races, the information con- 

 cerning the habits of the Lesser White-fronted Goose is even more scanty than 

 that respecting the economy of the preceding race. Hume states that in India, 



