AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 143 



borough, at Dodford in the same week. A solitary 

 White-fronted Goose was clearly identified by my 

 friend Lieut. -Colonel L. H. Irby (very near the spot 

 upon which Mr. Hunt shot the bird above mentioned) 

 on December 18, 1885. Richard Skelton, my decoy- 

 man, wrote to me on January 17, 1888, that on 

 the 12th of that month he saw four " Brant " Geese ; 

 on my writing for further details he wrote: — "The 

 four Geese that I saw were not the black Geese 

 (^. e. Brent), they were what I call the Scotch Brant 

 Geese, they have two or three black spots on the 

 breast the size of a penny piece." This left very 

 little doubt in my mind as to the species of these 

 four birds, and Skelton on seeing my stuffed specimen 

 of A\niite-fronted Goose immediately recognized it 

 as being of the " same sort " as his " Scotch Brant." 

 I have heard of the occurrence of this species in 

 a flock of seven or eight near Kettering many years 

 ago, but have no record of precise date. The 

 principal breeding-haunts of this species are the vast 

 morasses of Northern Asia, whence it migrates in 

 autumn all over Europe, Asia, and North Africa, 

 as far southwards as India and Nubia. In the 

 British Islands this Goose is curiously local in its 

 winter visits, always more common in Ireland and 

 some of the western Scottish isles than on our 

 eastern coasts. This bird has been not inaptly 

 named Laughing Goose from its remarkable cry, 

 which is in itself sufficient to distinguish it from 

 its British congeners. In my experience of this 

 species in captivity, I have found that it is less 

 inclined to take habitually to the water than other 

 Geese, and that it seems to prefer growing grasses 

 to corn in grain or meal. Some of my pinioned birds 



