72 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
sand of that name ; they also visit the coast of England. Buffon 
relates that in the severe winters of 1740 and 1765, during the 
prevalence of a strong north wind, the Brant visited the coast of 
Picardy in France, in prodigious numbers, and committed great 
depredations on the corn, tearing it up by the roots, trampling 
and devouring it, and notwithstanding the exertions of the in¬ 
habitants, who were constantly employed in destroying them, 
they continued in great force until a change of weather carried 
them off.”— Wilson’s American Ornithology. 
THE WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 
Anser Albifrons; Bonap. Syn. Anser Albifrons , Laughing Goose; 
Sw. fy Rich. White-fronted Goose ; Nutt. Man. 
“ Specific Character. —Head and neck grayish-brown ,* at the 
base of the upper mandible, a white band. Adult with the bill 
carmine-red; with the unguis white; head and neck grayish- 
brown ; a white band, margined behind with blackish-brown, 
on the anterior part of the forehead, along the bill; general 
color of back, deep-gray, the feathers of its fore part broadly 
tipped with grayish-brown—the rest with grayish-white ; hind 
part of back deep-gray; wings grayish-brown; toward the 
edge, ash-gray—as are the primary coverts, and outer webs of 
the primaries ; the rest of the primaries and secondaries, gray¬ 
ish-black, the latter with a narrow edge of grayish-white—the 
former edged and tipped with white ; breast, abdomen, lower 
tail coverts, sides of rump, and upper tail coverts, white ; the 
breast and sides patched with brownish-black—on the latter in¬ 
termixed with grayish-brown feathers ; tail rounded, feet orange, 
claws white ; length, twenty-seven and a half inches j wing, 
fourteen and a half inches. 
“ On the coast of Long Island, this Goose is exceedingly 
rare. The cabinet of the Lyceum of Natural History, New- 
York, contains a specimen that was shot at Babylon. Accord- 
