GEESE 233 



eggs in lat. 69° 30' N., where no other species of 

 Swan was to be seen. Considerably smaller in size 

 than the Whooper, the weight of Bewick's Swan 

 varies from 13 to 15 lbs. 



GREY LAG GOOSE. Anser ferus (Gmelin). PL 27, 

 figs. 1, la. Length, 32 in. ; bill, 2-5 in. ; wing, 17*5 

 in. ; tarsus, 2*75 in. 



Breeds annually, though in decreasing numbers, 

 on some of the lochs and islands of Ross-shire, 

 Sutherland, and Caithness, as well as in the Hebrides; 

 formerly also in the English fens. A winter 

 visitant to England and Ireland, but much less 

 common than either the Bean or the Pink-footed 

 Goose. It is a rare bird in Cornwall, where it 

 was first noticed by Rodd {Zool, 1862, p. 8002). 

 Charles St. John, writing in 1849 ("Tour in Suther- 

 land," vol. i. p. 139), observed: "The Grey Lag 

 Goose breeds on Loch Maddie, Loch Laoghal, Loch 

 Urigil, &c., but I am sorry to see that these fine 

 birds have every chance of being entirely driven 

 away from their haunts." In 1866 they were re- 

 ported as having almost entirely deserted Loch 

 Urigil (where, however, they nested in 1881), and 

 much diminished on Loch Loyal, where only one 

 pair bred in 1886 (Harvie- Brown and Buckley, 

 "Fauna of Sutherland and Caithness," 1887, p. 

 184). It is said that this Goose was not formerly 

 a migratory species in England, but permanently 

 resided and bred in the " carrs " of Yorkshire, and 

 probably in the fens of Lincolnshire. (See Strickland 



