PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 421 



ber basin, though odd examples have occurred from time to 

 time in various parts of the North and West Ridings ; these 

 instances, however, are far too numerous for mention in detail. 



The Pink-footed Goose is readily distinguished from the 

 Bean Goose by the colour of its legs, which in the latter are 

 yellow, and also by its shorter beak, as well as by the lighter 

 colour of the wing shoulders, they being blue as in the case 

 of the Grey Lag Goose ; but no mistake can be made in 

 differentiating these two, the Grey Lag having a white nail at 

 the tip of the beak, which in the Pink-foot is hlack. The pink 

 colour of the legs varies in intensity in different individuals 

 according to age, being often very light in the young birds, 

 and dark in the old ones. There is also considerable differ- 

 ence in the weight of old and immature examples, the former 

 occasionally scaling 81bs., whilst the young ones sometimes 

 do not weigh more than four. 



The voice of the Pink-footed Goose is a single note 

 " Ky-ack " " Ky-ack " often repeated, and it is the repetition 

 of this note by so many voices which makes the gabble or 

 gaggle of a flock of Wild Geese as they wing their figured flight 

 across the sky. 



The habits of this species have not changed since Strick- 

 land's day, and now, just as then, they may be seen each 

 morning shortly after daybreak, in large and small flocks, 

 skeins, and strings, winging their way to the high Wolds to 

 feed on the scattered grain and young clover, while at dusk 

 they rise with unfailing regularity and bend their course 

 back again to the islands in the Humber, there to remain 

 until the breaking of another day sets them in flight again 

 to their accustomed feeding grounds inland. This habit of 

 feeding by day and returning to the Humber to spend the 

 night is as old as the hills, and has been noticed from time 

 immemorial, while so regular is their first appearance on the 

 Wolds that the old men have for generations fixed the date 

 as the 25th September — "Weeton Fair Day" — i.e. Market 

 Weighton. 



Wild Geese are not now so numerous as in the old days 

 before the enclosure of the Wolds, for then they v.cre quite 



