Egyptian Goose.—(Anas Ægyptiaca, Linn.; L’Oie d’ Egypte, Buff.)—This beautifully variegated species is nearly the size of the grey lag, or the common wild goose. The bill red, about two inches in length, tip black, and nostrils dusky; eyelids red, and the irides pale yellow; the throat, cheeks, and upper part of the head, are white; a rusty chestnut-coloured patch, on each side of the head, surrounds the eyes. About two-thirds of the neck, from the head downwards, is of a pale reddish bay colour, darker at the lower end; a broad deep chestnut-coloured spot covers the middle of the breast; the shoulders and scapulars are of a reddish brown, prettily crossed with numerous dark waved lines; the wing coverts are white; the greater ones barred near the tips with black; the secondary quills are tinged with reddish bay, and bordered with chestnut; those of the primaries, which join them, are edged with glossy green, and the rest of the first quills are black; the lower part of the back, the rump, and tail, are black; the belly is white, but all the other fore-parts and sides of the body, from the neck near the vent, are delicately pencilled with narrow rust-coloured zigzag lines on a pale ash-grey ground; each wing is furnished on the bend with a short blunt spur. The colours of the female are pretty much the same as those of the male, but not by any means so bright or distinctly marked. This kind is common in a wild state in Egypt, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in various parts of the intermediate territories of Africa, whence they have been brought into, and domesticated in this and other civilised countries, and are now an admired ornament on many pieces of water contiguous to gentlemen’s seats.
Red-breasted Goose.—(Siberian Goose; Anser ruficollis.)—The red-breasted goose measures above twenty inches in length, and its extended wings three feet ten in breadth. The bill is short, of a brown colour, with the nail black; irides yellowish hazel; the cheeks and brow are dusky, speckled with white; an oval white spot occupies the space between the bill and the eyes, and is bounded above, on each side of the head, by a black line which falls down the hinder part of the neck; the chin, throat, crown of the head, and hinder part of the neck to the back, are black; two stripes of white fall down from behind each eye on the sides of the neck, and meet in the middle; the other parts of the neck, and the upper part of the breast, are of a deep rusty red, and the latter is terminated by two narrow bands of white and black; the back and wings are dusky; the greater coverts edged with grey; sides and lower part of the breast black; belly, upper and under tail coverts, white; legs dusky.
This beautiful species is a native of Russia and Siberia, whence they migrate southward in the autumn, and return in the spring; they are said to frequent the Caspian Sea, and are supposed to winter in Persia. They are very rare in this country.
White-fronted Wild Goose.—(Laughing Goose; Anas albifrons; L’ Oie rieuse, Buff.)—This species measures two feet four inches in length, and four feet six in the extended wings, and weighs about five pounds. The bill is thick at the base, of a yellowish red colour; the nail white; from the base of the bill and corners of the mouth a white patch is extended over the forehead; the rest of the head, neck, and upper parts of the plumage, are dark brown; the primary and secondary quills are of the same colour, but much darker, and the wing coverts are tinged with ash; the breast and belly are dirty white, spotted with dusky; the tail is of a hoary ash-coloured brown, and surrounded, like the lag goose’s, with a white ring at the base; the legs yellow.
These birds form a part of those vast tribes which swarm about Hudson’s Bay, and the north of Europe and Asia, during the summer months, and are but thinly scattered over the other quarters of the world. They visit the fens and marshy places in England in small flocks in the winter months, and disappear about the beginning of March. It is said that they never feed in the corn fields, but confine themselves wholly to such wilds and swamps as are constantly covered with water.
Wild geese are very destructive to the growing corn in the fields where they happen to halt in their migratory excursion. In some countries they are caught at those seasons in long nets, resembling those used for catching larks: to these nets the wild geese are decoyed by tame ones, placed there for that purpose. Many other schemes are contrived to take these wary birds; but, as they feed only in the day time, and betake themselves to the water at night, the fowler must exert his utmost care and ingenuity in order to accomplish his ends: all must be planned in the dark, and every trace of suspicion removed, for nothing can exceed the vigilant circumspection and acute ear of the sentinel, who, placed on some eminence, with outstretched-neck, surveys every thing that moves within the circle of the centre on which he takes his stand; and the instant he sounds the alarm, the whole flock betake themselves to flight.
The time that wild geese feed in this country is by night, and particularly during moonlight. I have never known them either netted or decoyed; and all the shooter has to rely upon is patience and a long barrel.
M. Cuvier has published a brief description of a bird produced between a swan and a goose, which in fact amounts to its being a perfect goose, in every thing but size like its mother, which it greatly exceeds.—Bewick—Wild Sports.