52 Geese of Europe and Asia 



the Black and Caspian Seas, in North India, China, Korea, and Japan. As to Trans- 

 caucasia, and even the lakes of the Armenian highland, I have a curious fact to com- 

 municate. I have myself seen white-fronted geese shot near Tiflis, but for some reason 

 local sportsmen, to my great surprise, there consider them as almost uneatable, while in 

 the Azov region this goose is highly esteemed as a table-bird— an opinion with which I am 

 quite in accord, as I have often had occasion to use them as food, and have also heard 

 the most favourable accounts of their excellence from all the inhabitants. 



As regards the American representative of this goose, it is known that, while 

 migrating through the whole country, it travels to winter as far south as Mexico and 

 Cuba. 



While, then, we know approximately both the summer and winter habitats of the 

 white-fronted goose, and have seen that it is met with on passage almost throughout 

 Western Europe and in European Russia, yet we are unable to give detailed data on its 

 lines of migration owing to the lack of observations. I consider indeed that, with the data 

 to hand, it would as yet be hazardous to define even approximately these lines, especially 

 in view of the fact of the frequent confusion of this species with the lesser white-fronted 

 goose, from which it is far from always possible to distinguish it with certainty when 

 on the wing. Many such determinations are made, so to say, by eye ; but, for birds which 

 not all ornithologists could certainly distinguish even by their skins, such determinations 

 from a distance can have absolutely no real value, and may easily still further complicate 

 the question. As regards facts, it is undisputed that in many parts of Asia white-fronted 

 geese are very rarely seen on migration. In the Turgai district, for example, these 

 geese were obtained by Dr. Sushkin, between September 20 and October 4, on two 

 lines of migration : one of these being in the extreme northerly corner of the territory, 

 the other midway between the upper waters of the Tobol and the Emba. In Turkestan 

 it is rare, as it is in North Mongolia. In Central Asia Przewalski, for some reason, 

 nowhere mentions it ; but in the Ussori district white-fronted geese are numerous when 

 migrating, as is stated by the same explorer in his description of their passage over Lake 

 Khanka. 



According to the Abbe David, this goose passes in great numbers along the coast of 

 China, and, although in winter not plentiful in the markets of Peking, is very abundant at 

 that time of year in those of Shanghai. We do not, however, know much about its winter 

 quarters ; although, on the other hand, we are aware that in several localities where it might 

 be supposed to winter it is not met with. For instance, let us take the valley of the 

 Atrek, where Mr. Zhitnikov observed such a vast number of lesser white-fronted and 

 red-breasted geese (the latter on passage from Persia), although he did not see a single 

 specimen of the white-fronted goose, whereas not very far distant, on the Caspian Sea and 

 in Transcaucasia, these geese winter in large numbers. There seems, moreover, no doubt 

 that they pass the winter on all the shores of the Black Sea, i.e. in suitable spots of the 

 Western Caucasus and on the Asia Minor coast ; but, unfortunately, these places remain to 

 this day no better explored than many far more distant localities in Russian territory. The 

 wintering of the species in the Crimea in large numbers is testified to by Dr. Radde (Sivash) 

 and other investigators. It arrives there at the end of September and remains till March, 

 but in hard winters only till December, as it retires from severe frosts, doubtless, to the warm 

 coasts of the Caucasus and Asia Minor, Countless hosts of these birds pass in autumn 



