identified by the examination of this organ alone. Figures
of these will be hereafter introduced as vignettes to the
species to which they belong. In the wild Grey Lag Goose
the tube of the windpipe is nearly cylindrical, and this form
of trachea the Author has often observed on examination
of domestic Geese intended for the table, but he has also
frequently found the tube flattened at the lower portion, a
character which is constant in the White-fronted Goose,
Anser albifrons. Again, there are few persons acquainted
with the appearance of our domestic Geese who have not observed
in many of them the white ring of feathers round the
base of the beak extending a little upwards on the forehead,
from which Anser albifrons derives one of its names: the
figure of the White-fronted Goose, the next species here
given, exhibits this mark. The breast of the latter is
strongly barred with black, and these markings are also
found, although less pronounced, in the Grey Lag Goose.
The legs of many of our domestic Geese are orange-coloured,
like those of the White-fronted Goose, whereas the legs of
the wild Grey Lag Geese are of a pale flesh-colour. The
white colour of the horny termination of the beak, called the
nail, is common to both. The occasional deviation from the
natural colour of the plumage of the wild birds to a pure
white, which is probably caused by domestication and selection,
has been referred to.
The wild Grey Lag Goose was formerly common in the
fens of this country, residing there the whole year, and
bringing out eight or nine young; but the general system of
diaining pursued in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire,
has been the means of driving them away. The
precise date is not known ; but in * The Zoologist ’ for 1888
(p. 884), Mr. Harting quotes a letter addressed to the celebrated
John Hunter by William Walcot, jun., of Oundle,
Northamptonshire, in which the latter says : “ To the best
of my recollection it was in the summer of 1773 that I took
the oiiginal Goose (now in my possession) with three others
(then \eiy little goslings) in the fens between Cambridge and
Ely.” Daniel, in his ‘ Rural Sports ’ (iii. p. 242), published
in 1807, says that he took two broods in one season, which
he turned down, after having pinioned them, with the Common
Geese ; both parties seemed shy at first, but they soon
associated, and remained very good friends. Grey Lag
Geese have long since ceased to breed in Lincolnshire, and
Mr. Cordeaux informs the Editor that they appear to become
rarer in the Humber district every year; and further north,
along the east coast, the species is almost unknown. On the
west side of our island it is also rare; and during his long
experience the late Mr. Rodd only knew three instances of
its occurrence in Cornwall and the Scilly Islands. Certain
it is that now the Grey Lag Goose is comparatively a rare
bird at any season, and whole winters pass away without
a single example occurring in the London market, though
the bird is well known to some who are constantly upon the
look-out for it. A few specimens appeared in October 1837,
and in January 1838, and the Author considered himself
fortunate in obtaining two specimens in March 1840, at the
common Wild Goose price, of a poulterer who did not know
them as distinct from the Bean Goose. On the south coast
of England identified specimens are almost equally rare.
In Scotland, as Mr. Harvie-Brown informs the Editor,
this species is perhaps the rarest of the ‘ Grey ’ Geese on
migration; he only met with it once in Stirlingshire, and
never heard of another. It still breeds, however, although
in decreasing numbers, in Sutherland, Ross, and Caithness,
on the mainland ; and, more abundantly, on the islands of the
Outer and Inner Hebrides. It is, in fact, the only species
of Wild Goose which nests in Scotland, for the statements
of Selby as to the breeding of the Bean Goose in Suther-
landshire, and of Macgillivray as to the nesting of the Pinkfooted
Goose in the Hebrides, have never been confirmed.
In bad weather the Grey Lag Goose is an accidental visitor
to Orkney and Shetland, but it is not known to breed there.
In Ireland it is, as a rule, rare in a wild state at any season,
but Sir R. Payne-Gallwey states that on the lake at Castle
Coole (Lord Belmore’s), in co. Monaghan, there are over a
hundred true Grey Lag Geese which never stray far from
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