58 



British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



one shilling a head. Some owners winged them only once a quarter, taking ten 

 feathers from each Goose, making five shillings a thousand— six score to the 

 hundred,— this was long before the days of steel pens. There was nothing to 

 prevent a cottager, renting five pounds a year, and who had only a cow and a 

 few sheep, running 1,500 to 2,000 breeding Geese on the common lands. Thousands 

 were driven to London and other markets in the autumn; they moved at the 

 rate of a mile an hour, and did ten mile a day. 



In the adult Grey Lag-Goose the rump is lavender-grey, the same colour 

 prevailing the wing- coverts ; bill pink; nail white; legs and feet flesh colour; 

 irides brown. My friend, Mr. G. H. Caton Haigh, of Grainsby Hall, informs me 

 that in an example shot by himself in Lincolnshire, the beak was orange, except 

 a narrow strip surrounding the white nail. 



The Grey Lag-Goose is one of the most wary and knowing of birds, 

 yet the word " Goose," as applied to men and women, is a term of ridicule, 

 and this notwithstanding that the bird is credited with having saved Rome; 

 neither can we forget that the Grey Goose feather winged the deadly cloth-yard 

 shafts, which on many a hard fought field, against overwhelming odds, brought 

 victory to the side of England. 



Family— ANA TIDM 



The White-Fronted Goose. 



Anser albi/rons, Scop. 



THIS species is not a common Goose an3rwhere on the east coast of Bngland 

 or Scotland, although it is not altogether absent in any season during its 

 residence, in some winters being more plentiful than in others, thus in the winter 

 of 1864-5, ^ very severe one, several flocks were seen, and many examples were 



