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THE NESTING OF THE BAU-HEADED GOOSE {ANSER 



TNDJCUS) IN TIBET. 



BY 



F. M. Bailey. 



{With Plate A.) 



On the 2nd June 190<S on my way down from Gyantse to Phari, 

 I left the main road which skirts the Northern shore of the Hram- 

 tso — a lake 14,700 feet above sea level and some eight miles long 

 by fonr broid — and travelled round the Southern side, halting for 

 two days at the village of Hram. The Southern shore of this lake 

 is bordered by a belt of marsh about 2 miles broad in its widest parts. 

 On this marsh thousands of bar- headed geese breed, and it was the 

 hope of being able to visit their nests that brought me here. The 

 villagers of Hram annually collect hundreds of these eggs and sell 

 them at the rate of 30 for a rupee to men who carry them to different 

 parts of Tibet for sale. This year, however, for religious reasons the 

 killing of all game and the taking of the eggs of wild birds has been 

 prohibited by the Lhasa Government, and so I was fortunate in find- 

 ins the birds more or less undisturbed. On arriving at the village I 

 sent for some men who could show me where the nests were and we 

 walked the mile between the village and the edge of the lake, carry- 

 ing with us a flat-bottomed Tibetan skin boat. This we launched at 

 the edge of the lake and I was pushed across a few hundred yards 

 of clear water which was only about 2 feet deep. Here we were on 

 the marsh anl could see dry islands ahead of us, white with thousands 

 of geese. The nearest of these islands was only about a quarter of a 

 mile away, but we were at least a quarter of an hour covering this 

 distance. Every step one sank in up to the thighs in mud and at that 

 elevation frequent rests were necessary. I was told that we were 

 having luck in crossing the marsh as if the wind had been blowing 

 from the North, that is from the deeper part of the lake towards 

 the marsh, the water would have been banked up on the marsh and 

 it would have been too deep to be passable. As we neared the first 

 island my guides pointed out the tracks of men over the marsh who 



they told me must have come by night, disobeying the orders from 

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