174 Wild Geese 



Their natural caution is entirely cast aside until these two primary 

 necessities have been satisfied. 



Frost. — Frost affects the movements of Geese in a marked way. 

 Even a slight frost in such a place as the Western Islands, where 

 any temperature below 32° F. is out of the common, alters the usual 

 feeding-ground, spoiling the pasturage, freezing up the bogs and 

 shallow waters. The Geese are then congregated more and more in 

 those few places where the feeding conditions are satisfactory, and 

 where, by reason of springs or running water, the shallow places 

 still remain open. If the cold continues and increases, they are 

 driven to the cultivated fields, clover-layers and stubbles for food, 

 and to such big lochs as remain unfrozen, for water. [In the Eastern 

 counties of England these conditions would drive all the Grey-geese 

 down to the salt water estuaries with their big mud liats]. And if 

 this state of affairs lasts for any length of time the Grey-geese leave 

 the island altogether and migrate southward, while the half-starved 

 Barnacle Geese remain a little longer, trying to gather a scanty 

 sustenance on the sea-shore, until they, too, take the southern flight. 

 Of the two Grev-geese, the White-front is more sensitive to cold, 

 and the hardships it brings with it, than the Grey-lag. They, 

 northern breeders though they be, sometimes shift south in a body 

 before a single Grey-lag has moved. So we see with the Thrushes ; 

 the species that suffer first and suffer most from a severe cold spell, 

 are the northern Red-wings and Field-fares rather than the temperate 

 Song-thrush, Missel-thrush and Blackbird. 



I now propose to deal with some observations, chiefly drawn 

 from a recent visit to the Outer Hebrides. I have selected these 

 diaries, rather than notes from East Anglia or Ireland, for the main 

 subject of my discourse, because in the latter districts. Geese were 

 rather exceptional captures, and the diary would have contained 

 little of interest beyond the mere record of shooting. The oppor- 

 tunities for observation, except in the case of the marine Brent, 

 were very limited, whereas in the Hebrides I lived for two months 

 in close contact with three different species of Geese, the Grey-lag, 

 the White-front, and the Barnacle. To them I practically gave up 

 the whole of my time, watching them from sunrise to sunset, and 

 endeavouring to outwit them. One almost always saw these 

 different species each day, and sometimes shot examples of each. 

 I did shoot a fourth species of Goose on this island, the Brent, a 

 single example only, but they are very rare in South Uist, and my 

 knowledge of the Brent is chiefly derived from the eastern counties 

 of England. 



The shooting I am referring to is rather peculiar in character, 

 and as the Geese were curiouslv local in their distribution, I must ask 

 you to allow me to spend a moment in describing the topography. 



The goose-ground consists of a long and rather narrow strip, 

 perhaps six miles in length by one-and-a-half to two miles in width, 

 bounded to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the east by the main 



