ANATIDAE—GEESE. 191
Pink-footed Goose : Anser brachyrhynchus.
A winter visitor.
There is in the Saffron Walden Museum a specimen shot there in 1841 ; and
the bones of one killed at Brightlingsea, on Dec. 31st, 1874 (32a) are among Dr.
Bree's specimens, while Mr. Elwes of Colchester has the bird. My uncle, Mr.
Joseph Smith, has one, shot some years ago at Pattiswick Hall, near Braintree, by
his son, Mr. Joseph Smith jun., who saw another with it, which escaped.
White-fronted Goose: Anser albifrons. Locally, "Laugh-
ing Goose."
A not uncommon winter visitor.
Mr. Clarke
speaks of it (24)
as occasionally
met with round
Walden in hard
winters. Meyer
(British Birds)
mentions one shot
on the Thames,
near London, in
Feb. 1846. On
Dec. 3rd, 1879,
three were seen
near Harwich, and
an old Gander
and a young bird
were shot (Kerry
—40. iv. 69); An
old male was shot
at Tollesbury ear-
ly in Jan., 1870
(29,. Jan. 15).
It is shot oc-
casionally on the
coast in both the
Paglesham and
Colchester dis-
tricts ( Laver ).
The sternum and
furculum of a specimen shot at Brightlingsea in Jan., 1871 (32a ; and 29. Feb. 25),
are in the Bree Collection.
On Feb. 23rd, 1889, a specimen was observed and was afterwards fairly
decoyed by means of a dog, together with several Ducks and Wigeon, ex-
actly in the way Ducks are taken, in Mr. Robert Page's Marsh House Decoy at
Tillingham. It is still preserved at Marsh House, where, through Mr. Page's
kindness, I have seen it. The taking of any species of Goose in a Decoy is highly
remarkable, and probably quite unique, though Mr. Page has another specimen,
caught in an ordinary rat-trap in the same Decoy eight or nine years ago. Once