WILD FOWL 
southern and western counties. Formerly the grey lag-goose bred in the 
fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, but it ceased to do so in the 
beginning of last century. 
Nest and eggs . — ^The nest, usually situated among coarse grass or long 
heather, is a fairly large structure made of dead grass, reeds, sedges, 
moss, etc., and is lined after the eggs are laid with down plucked from 
the breast of the female. In this country five or six eggs are usually laid 
about the middle of April, but more than twice that number are occa- 
sionally to be found. They are yellowish -white, and measure about 3*4 
by 2*3 inches. 
The weight of adult birds varies from 8 to 10 lbs., but heavier birds are 
occasionally met with. 
WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE 
ANSER ALBIFRONS 
(Plate XXVII, Fig. 4) 
Anser albifrons, Gould, Birds Europe, v, pi. 349 (1837); Dresser, Birds Europe, vi, p. 375, 
pi. 414 (1878); Hume & Marshall, Game Birds Ind., iii, p. 73, pi. x (1880); Lilford, Col. Fig. 
Brit. Birds, part x, pi. (1889); Salvador!, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxvii, p. 92 (1895); Saunders, 
III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 399 (1899); Alpheraky, Geese of Europe, p. 42, pis. iv and xxii (1905). 
""M DULT male. — Forehead and feathers at the base of the upper 
mandible, white, bordered posteriorly with black, which 
/ ^ is continued over the chin; head, neck, back, scapulars, 
/ long outer secondaries, sides and flanks, ash -brown, the 
/ three last-named with pale brownish-grey edges; lower 
back and rump dark brownish -black; upper and under 
tail-coverts white; chest pale greyish -brown; breast and belly brownish- 
white, more or less heavily marked with patches and bars of black, the 
amount of black varying according to age, and sometimes covering the 
greater part of the breast and belly in very old ganders; lower abdomen 
and vent white; thighs ash -brown; the wings like those of the grey 
lag-goose, but the outer wing -coverts and quills of a darker and more 
leaden-grey; under wing-coverts and axillaries dark smoky-grey; all 
the tail-feathers brownish -black tipped with white. Iris dark brown; 
bill orange -yellow, nail white; legs, toes and membranes orange, nails 
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