HIT V. - iM { o N r 1 ) o ( ) o s i : . 
ANSER A Eli IE RONS. 
Though I have met with 'White-fronted Geese in various parts of the country, from north to south, my 
notes contain little information about these handsome birds beyond refei’ences to the numbers slain, and 
I am able to add little or nothing to the knowledge already possessed concerning their habits. 
This species is a visitor to all parts of the British Islands within a few miles of the coast-line, grass- 
marshes and the sandy flats along the shore, as well as saltwater mud-banks, being its favourite resorts. 
Some five-and-twenty years ago these Geese were exceedingly numerous during winter about the 
extensive feeding-grounds in Pevensey Level in Sussex, flocks of from two to three hundred being 
occasionally seen. Twice one morning in December 1859 I succeeded in stopping five birds with the two 
barrels of a heavy ten-bore, the river-banks on t)ie first occasion, and the shelter afforded by a marsh- 
gate together with the adjoining posts and rails on the second, enabling a near approach to be made. 
These Geese have gradually deserted this famous wildfowl resort of former days ; the last time I was in 
the district, some ten or twelve years ago, a great change was ascertained to have taken place, one of 
the local gunners (a “looker,” who had accompanied me on my rounds since I first shot there) stating 
that he had not observed a flock of tliese birds for many winters. On the hills around Ilickling Broad 
and on tlie Holmes marshes in the east of Norfolk they frequently consort with Bean-Geese, and the two 
species have been repeatedly killed at one discharge of either the punt- or shoulder-gun. 
The young birds make their way as far south as the pools in the vicinity of the Land’s End by the 
latter end of October : in 1880 I examined several killed within a few miles of Penzance. They also 
occasionally visit the Sussex coast at an early date : for several days during the second week in October 1885 
about half a dozen wild Geese were observed flying about Shoreham, and one, which proved to be a 
juvenile of this species, was shot at a pool of brackish water between the harbour and Lancing on the 
15th of the month. Although the adults are considered a dainty dish when properly served up, they 
by no means compare with tlie young, which certainly are, as far as I have been able to judge, tlie 
finest flavoured of any wildfowl to be met with on our shores. In the plumage of the first autumn 
there is a total absence of white marking at the base of the bill, and in that state they might readily be 
mistaken for immature Bean-Geese or Grey-lags, by those unacquainted with the colouriiif? of the leo>s and 
beaks of each species. The tints of the soft parts of a young bird taken down shortly after it had been 
shot were as follows : — Upper and lower mandibles chrome-yellow, though not so deep or rich as in the 
adult, the nail a pale brownish tinge. Legs and toes the same tint of yellow as the mandibles with 
webs slightly darker, nails pale slate-colour. The weight of the young one from which the colours 
were taken was within three ounces of four pounds. 
The call-note of the White-fronted Goose somewhat resembles a hoarse peal of laughter, and the bird 
is occasionally styled the Laughing Goose. 
