Grey-lag Goose i77 



I had many opportunities of studying the bill of the Grey-lag 

 during Ufe, for 1 often watched flocks for an hour or more with a 

 telescope at a comparatively short range, hoping that they would 

 shift tlieir position off some ridge or high ground, and feed out of 

 sight so as to give me a chance of a stalk. I also killed a number of 

 these Geese, and examined their bills carefully immediately after 

 death. Whether these specimens were male or female, immature 

 or adult, I found the bill orange-coloured ; the nail a dull white, 

 never so brilliantly white as in a \\'hite-front. Immediately above 

 the nail, the bill was rosy pink ; this same pink colour was carried 

 along the cutting edge of the mandible and round the edges of the 

 nasal opening. For the rest, the bill was orange, rather paler and 

 duller on the upper surface from the forehead to the opening of the 

 iiares, and rather brighter on the lateral surface. The illustration 

 (plate IV , fig. i) gives a better idea of the distribution of colours 

 than an\' words of mine can do. The bill of the immature bird 

 diftered from that of the fully adult, only in having more yellow ; 

 the rosy tinge about the tip, cutting-edges and nares being less in 

 evidence. 



The legs and toes were pinkish flesh-coloured. The inter-digital 

 membranes a shade lighter, and the toe-nails dark horn-coloured. 

 Within a few hours of death, a great deal of pink colouration was 

 lost, and the legs had acquired a dead flesh tint. 



Eyelids. — These were markedly swollen, rose-pink in the adult 

 and lemon-vellow in the immature bird. 



A few white feathers crop out among the dark at the base of 

 the bill. These are not found in young birds, and even in the case 

 of adults, the white is never very extensive. In a very old Gander, 

 the ill-defmed white band measured one quarter of an inch. The 

 under parts, lower breast and belly, of the Grey-lag, show a variable 

 amount of black spotting ; isolated spots, not bars or bands. These 

 spots are entirely absent in birds of the year, and gradually increase 

 in number and size with age, but never in any way suggest the heavy 

 black bars found in the White-front. 



The Grey-lag is considerably the largest and heaviest of all the 

 British Geese, though I think the average weight is very much over- 

 estimated in most of our books. Out of some fifty specimens, 

 I never obtained one that exceeded 8 pounds lo ounces; the 

 average weight before the frost came was about 7 pounds 8 ounces, 

 and fell rapidly to somewhere about 6 pounds, as the result of ten 

 days' frost. 



The species may readily be recognized by the light, blue-grey 

 shoulders, and orange-coloured bill with the white nail. At a 

 considerable distance it is distinguishable by its cry, which is similai 

 to that of our own domesticated species, and quite distinct from the 

 cry of any other Wild Goose. 



This Goose still breeds with us, but in ever-decreasing numbers 

 on the mainland. The outer Hebrides may be looked on as their last 



M 



