GOOSE. 
219 
them marked the same ; the rest of the quills are pale ash colour ; 
breast and belly fine yellowish buff ; the tail consists of twenty feathers ; 
legs and feet red orange. 
The Goosander sometimes visits our rivers and lakes in severe win- 
ters, but retires to the more northern latitudes of Greenland and Ice- 
land, where it breeds. In the Orkneys and Hebrides it is found the 
whole year round, while in the other districts it is only a winter visitant. 
It is not uncommon on the continent of Europe and Asia, but most 
plentiful towards the north. It is a winter inhabitant of the sea shore, 
and fresh water lakes of America, where they usually associate in small 
parties of six or eight. They disappear from that country in the 
month of April, and return in November. Its food consists entirely of 
fish, for which it dives with great celerity, and holds its slippery prey 
with great security, by means of its toothed bill, which is admirably 
adapted to the purpose.* 
GOOSE (Anser paliistrisy Fleming.) 
Lister, Phil. Trans. 15. 175. p. 1159. — Ray, Syn. Ay. p. 138. — Anas Anser 
(ferns) Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 510. sp. g. — Anser sylvestris, Briss. 6. p. 265. 2. — 
Oie sauvage, Buff. 9. p. 30. t. 2. — Wild Goose, Will. p. 358. — Albin, 1. p. 90. 
— Grey Lag Goose, Penn. Br. Zool. 2. p. 266. — Arct. Zool. 2. p. 473. — Lath. 
Syn. 6. p. 459. 31. — Lewin’s Br. Birds, 7. p. 238. — Flem. Br. Anim. p. 126. — 
Common Goose, Mont. Diet. 
Provincial . — Fen Goose. Stubble Goose. 
This is the original of our common domestic Goose. It weighs eight 
or nine pounds ; length about thirty-three inches. The bill is large, 
and elevated, of a flesh colour, the nail white ; irides greyish ; the head 
and neck ash-colour, mixed with rust colour ; back dusky grey ; the 
breast and belly whitish, clouded with ash-colour ; scapulars grey, edged 
with white ; the wing coverts are composed of different shades of cine- 
reous ; margins of the feathers lightest, the lesser coverts darker ; quill 
feathers more or less black at their ends ; the upper and under coverts 
pure white ; the tail feathers dusky, tipped with white ; the outer ones 
almost entirely white ; legs flesh coloured ; and claws black. 
These birds are said to reside in the Lincolnshire fens during the 
whole year, where they breed, and the young are frequently taken, and 
become tame, although the greater part of the large flocks seen with us 
in the winter, doubtless retire northward to breed. They lay eight or 
nine eggs of a dirty white colour, and are frequently killed on the 
downs, in the south of England, feeding on green wheat. We remem- 
ber one being shot in the wing, by a farmer, in the neighbourhood of 
the Wiltshire downs, which was kept alive for many years, but would 
never associate with the tame ones. This and most of the other species 
are indiscriminately called wild geese. 
