CHAPTER XXIX 



GREY-GEESE 



There is no division of our British wildfowl, the delinea- 

 tion of which I approach with so much incertitude, and 

 conscious lack of precise knowledge, as the little genus 

 defined by coast-gunners as "grey-geese." The genus 

 consists, in this country, of but four members, all closely 

 resembling each other, hardly to be distinguished except 

 when actually in one's hand, and all bearing a strong 

 family likeness to their domesticated descendants of the 

 farmyard. 



This uncertainty arises from no scarcity of the birds, or 

 lack of opportunities for observing them. During six 

 months out of the twelve, the grey-geese come almost 

 daily under the observation of the punt-gunner on the 

 coast ; while, inland, they are the only geese met with, for 

 the brents and bernicles (which form the "black-geese" 

 division of fowlers) never quit salt water : hence the long 

 skeins of wild-geese so often seen passing overland, all 

 belong to the grey division, but who can say to which 

 species ? 



The difficulties which surround the problem of the 

 specific identity of this group of birds arise neither from 

 their scarcity, nor from any peculiar wariness on their 

 part which is not common to all wild-geese. It is rather the 



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