﻿10 ANATID.E. 



the water, instinct teaches them to resort to that element for 

 protection, where by diving or swimming to the shelter of 

 some cover, they may elude observation : on such occasions the 

 parents fly round the intruders, uttering their inharmonious 

 cries. 



The varieties that occur among the Grey Lag Wild Goose 

 are pied, but never entirely white ; domestication is supposed 

 to have produced the pure white specimens seen among our 

 tame species. 



The food of this Goose consists in the seeds of all kinds 

 of grain, and in vegetable matter, such as young wheat, 

 turnips, carrots, grasses, clover, &c, and many wild plants 

 that are sweet and tender. Barley and oats are its most 

 favourite food, but it never consumes insects of any kind. 



We observed above, that in Holland this species is rare ; 

 in consequence of which, it numbers among delicate pre- 

 sents that are sent to Dutch merchants by their Prussian 

 and Pomeranian correspondents, at certain seasons of the 

 year ; and we remember to have observed that they were 

 always in fine condition, being, in fact, almost too fat to 

 be enjoyed. 



The adult male of the Grey Lag Wild Goose measures 

 nearly three feet in length ; the wing from the carpus to the 

 tip seventeen inches and a half; the beak three inches ; the 

 tarsus three inches seven lines. 



The colouring of the plumage is as follows : the head, 

 nape, back part of the neck, and upper parts of the back 

 brownish ash-colour, the latter transversely barred ; the back, 

 scapulars, greater and lesser wing-coverts, are brownish ash- 

 colour bordered with white ; the smaller wing-feathers, the 

 entire edge of the wing and the base of the quill-feathers 

 are whitish ash-colour ; the rump is ash- coloured ; the vent 

 and under tail -covers, white ; the beak is pale orange 



