A very odd-looking bird that you can sometimes see walking along the bank of a lake is one that is called a goose, but is halfway to being a duck. This is the Egyptian goose. It is a fat, awkward-looking grey and brown bird that looks as if it has been given a black eye by someone. On a closer look, one finds that it has a chestnut-brown circle round its eye, which is yellow. When it flies up, it displays a large white patch on its wings.
If it seems rather out of place in an English park, that is not surprising. It is an African bird from Ethiopia and the Nile valley, and its usual companions are hippopotami and elephants, rather than coots