314 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



The black straggling procession of crows, with occa- 

 sional flocks of fieldfares, had not finishing passing when 

 the train carried me away towards Lynn, skirting the 

 green marshes or meadows sacred to the wild geese. 

 And here, before we came to the little Holkham 

 station, I had my last sight of them. Looking out I 

 spied a party of about a dozen Egyptian geese, on a 

 visit to their wild relations, from Holkham Park close 

 by, and as the train approached they became alarmed 

 and finally rose up with much screaming and cackling 

 and flew from us, showing their strongly contrasted 

 colours, black and red and glistening white, to the best 

 advantage. Now a very little further on a flock of 

 about eight hundred wild geese were stationed. They 

 were all standing with heads raised to see the train pass 

 within easy pistol shot; yet in spite of all the noise and 

 steam and rushing motion, and of the outcry the semi- 

 domestic Egyptians had raised, and their flight, these 

 wild geese, the most persecuted and wariest birds in 

 the world, uttered no sound of alarm and made no 

 movement ! 



A better example of this bird's intelligence could not 

 have been witnessed; nor — from the point of view of 

 those who dream of a more varied and nobler wild-bird 

 life than we have now been reduced to in England — 

 could there have been a more perfect object lesson. 



