The geese proper form a well-circumscribed group, characterized by a bill rather high at base, comparatively short and strong; the lamellae hardly deserve that name, being short, broad at base, tooth-like, and altogether adapted to the grazing habits of these birds. The body is stout, and the legs placed near the equilibrium, so as to make the movements on land less awkward than in most ducks. The plumage of the neck is rather peculiar, the feathers being narrow and arranged in oblique series into more or less conspicuous ridges and grooves. The two cuts represent two of the most important genera, the gray-lag being the type of Anser proper, the land-geese, while the common brunt (Branta bernicla) shows the chief characters of the sea-geese, which feed particularly on the seagrass. The gray-lag goose (which, by the way, is the wild stock of the domesticated goose) and its allies are restricted to the boreal regions, while the barnicle geese are equally well represented in the southern hemisphere, particularly in antarctic South America, where several handsome species, peculiar by the metallic reflections of the wing speculum, have their home.
One of these, Chleephaga melanoptera, inhabits the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia, as high up as 14,000 feet above the sea-level, and has not been met with south of 35 deg. south latitude. It descends in winter to the plains, but retires in summer to the high Cordillera, to the verge of the line of perpetual snow. Another beautiful species is the emperor-goose (Philacte canagica), from islands in Bering Sea and Alaska. Besides these there are numerous other kinds, of which we can only mention the names, the red-breasted brunt (Ruabrenta ruscollis), from eastern Siberia, the barred-headed goose (Eulabeia indica), from India, the swan-goose (Cygnopsis cygnoides), from China, the Hawkesbury bernicle (Chlamydochen jubata), from Australia, etc. We will have to stop a moment, however, to consider a genus, containing only a few diminutive species of geese, the so-called goslets (svettepus), of which representatives are found in South Africa, Madagascar, India, and Australia. Notwithstanding their size, which is not greater than that of a teal, they are true geese with a typical bernicle bill. They are excellent swimmers, however, and pass the greater part of their life on the water, thus differing from most other geese. The Indian species, is described as having a peculiar shuffling gait when on land, as "after walking a few steps they always squat." Jerdon thinks it probable that in the wild state they never alight on the land.
