WILD GEESE. Of the ten or twelve species of geese occurring in the United States, all but two or three breed in the far north, and are migrants and winter visitants south of Canada. The corn mon wild goose (Jiranta Canadensis) is abundant throughout North America. It is about three or three and one-half feet long and five feet across the wings. The head and neck are black, with a white patch on the chin; general color brownish gray, paler below. The nest is usually on the ground, but sometimes in trees. The eggs are usually five or six, plain huffy white. A remark able Arctic goose is the emperor goose (Philade canagica), about two-thirds as large as the com mon goose, abundant on the shores of Bering Sea; the flesh is said to be rank and unfit for food. The snow-goose (Chen hyperborea) is a pure white one found throughout America, but rather rare in eastern parts. The so-called 'tree-ducks' (Dendrocygna) are tropical American geese oc enrring as far north as Texas in the summer. They are only about twenty inches long and are colored with various shades of yellowish and reddish brown. They make their nests in hol
low trees, often some distance from water. , Among the notable geese of the Old World must be mentioned the graylag goose (Anser fcrus), which is thought to be the ancestral stock of the common domesticated goose. ( See Colored Plate of AQUATIC BIRDS.) It is found in Central Europe and Asia, and in North Africa. Another, common in Great Britain, is the bean-goose (A user sergetum), small and brownish, with a black 'nail' on the beak. The spur-winged goose (Plectropterus Cambensis) is a bird with prominent spurs on the wings, found in Africa. In Australia there are two very remark able geese, one (Anseranas melanoleuea) with the feet little more than half webbed, and the other (Cereopsis a scarcely aquatic bird, with long legs having the tibia part ly hare, and the bill small and membranous. Among the hest-known of the geese are the 'wants and harnaele-geese (qq.v.). See Plate of WILD Drorcs.