16 
FANCY WATERFOWL. 
even sometimes reaching the ground. 
The flights are defective, so that 
the birds cannot fly, as most Geese, 
even though tame, can do. These 
birds are to my mind more curious 
than ornam ental, but always attract 
notice, and perhaps deserve a place 
as freaks in any mixed collection. 
They should not, of course, be 
crossed. 
Returning to more normal birds, 
we come to the second domestic 
species of Goose, which has a rather 
uncertain status between orna- 
mental waterfowl and poultry. 
This is 
THE CHINESE GOOSE. 
( Cygnopsis cygnoides.) 
Embden and African Cross (Young). 
Then the Bean-goose ( Anser fabalis), a dark-brown, 
slight-built bird, smaller than the Grey-lag, with orange 
legs and bill, the latter black at the root and tip. 
Smaller than this is the White-fronted Goose (Anser 
n/hifrons), with orange feet and yellow or flesh-coloured 
bill : its general colour is brown, with a white patch on 
the forehead and black blotches on the belly. 
About the same size is the Pink-footed Goose (Anser 
braehyrhynchus), coloured much like the Grey lag, with 
a small bill, black at root and tip, and pink in the 
middle, the feet being also pink. This bird sometimes 
occurs with orange on the bill and feet, hut then its 
plumage and small bill will distinguish it from the 
dark, coarse-billed Bean-goose. 
These Geese have, of course, a wide range outside 
England, and only one, the Grey- 
lag, breeds in this country, and 
that only in Scotland. To its 
resident habits it owes its name, 
being the “ lagging ” Goose which 
stayed to breed when the rest had 
left England for the North. It 
was tamed by the Greeks even in 
Homer’s time, that poet mention- 
ing “ a large white Goose, a tame 
bird from the yard.” The white 
colour was thus early bred, and it 
is remarkable how little variation, 
comparatively speaking, has taken 
place in the tame Goose under 
cultivation. It has, however, be- 
sides the more ordinary Embden 
and Toulouse breeds, familiar to 
most frequenters of poultry i shows, 
produced one very curious variety, 
The Chinese goose is always dis- 
tinguishable from the common 
domestic goose by its longer neck, 
without the pleating of the feathers 
of that part seen in the ordinary 
bird, »nd more upright carriage. 
It also has a knob on the bill, larger 
in the gander than in the goose. It 
is often white, with orange bill 
and feet, but when normally 
coloured is brown, not grey, with the top of the head 
and back of the neck uniform dark brown, the rest 
of the head and neck being pale buff. The hill in 
such birds is black, the feet only being orange. This is 
the coloration of the wild bird as it exists in Eastern 
Asia, but in this state it has a longer bill with no knob, 
and is, of course, much lighter in make, many tame 
Chinese geese being very broad in the stern, and 
paunchy and dewlapped like the Toulouse breed 
of the grey goose. Personally, I should prefer 
the lighter birds for ornamental purposes. Prac- 
tically, the Chinese goose is of value as a very good 
layer, and an excellent alarum, though one may have 
too much of its vociferous screaming. It is fonder of the 
water than the common goose ; when 1 had the oppor- 
THE SEBASTOPOL GOOSE. 
This bird is rather smaller than 
ordinary tame Geese, and white in 
colour, with blue eyes and orange 
or fleshy bill and feet. Its great 
peculiarity is in the lengthened, 
twisted, and frayed-out plumage 
of the body and inner part of the 
wings, which forms a regular fleece, 
African Geese (Adults). 
