﻿WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 23 



close to them when in small parties ; and on the sea-coast 

 they also congregate in this manner with the Bernicle 

 Goose. 



The call-note of the White-fronted Goose sounds very 

 different from either of the before-described species ; it may 

 be described in the words click, clack, or cling ! and when 

 a flock are in an excited or angry mood, the concert is 

 exceedingly amusing ; and in consequence this species has 

 obtained also the appellation of the Laughing Goose. 



The food on which the White-fronted Goose subsists is 

 not only corn and green vegetable matter, but also marine 

 plants and insects, the remains of which are found in its 

 stomach, namely, beetles, and other insects, their larvae, 

 and small pebbles ; the specimen we obtained, as before 

 noticed, had most probably gone in search of insects in 

 the gravelly spots where we observed it : several times 

 this goose was put up near Chertsey in the very same 

 spot, on which it flew to a similar place near Walton 

 Bridge, and returned again and again to the former. 



The breeding localities of the present species are in the 

 higher northern regions, namely, the islands of the Arctic 

 Ocean, but we are unable to state the number of eggs, and 

 what the materials are that form the nest. 



Twenty-seven inches is the entire measurement of the 

 White-fronted Goose ; the beak, which is flesh-red, with 

 the nail white, measures two inches ; the legs are orange, 

 the webs flesh-red, and the claws whitish horn colour ; 

 the tarsus measures three inches ; the eye is dusky ; the 

 wing, from the carpus to the tip, sixteen inches in length. 

 The forehead and chin are white, encircled by a narrow 

 black band, which divides them from the brownish ash- 

 colour of the head and neck ; the lower part of the neck 

 is ash-coloured white, with several black bars in uncon- 



