GREY OR GRE.Y-LAG GOOSE 63 



stalking tbem one should put in one's first barrel at them on 

 the ground, and give them the second as they rise. Although 

 wild geese are often much less wary in India than they pro- 

 verbially are in Europe, they will be found to need careful 

 stalking where natives have guns, and in such places it is of no 

 use getting one's self up as a native in a blanket disguise, 

 a bullock used as a stalking-horse being much better. 

 ' They may also be shot when by the side of rivers by gliding 

 down on them in a boat, as mentioned in the case of bar-headed 

 geese, but there must be some arrangement to conceal the 

 shooter's head. They keep more on the shore than in the water, 

 and walk well, if not so gracefully as the bar-heads ; they are 

 also fast swimmers, and dive freely in play or when wounded, 

 but cannot keep under long. Having the same vegetarian habits 

 as geese in general, and bemg often so numerous, they are only 

 second as crop ravagers to bar-headed geese, and like them, do 

 much of their mischief at night. The younger birds, when 

 well fed, are good eating j actual yearlings may be distinguished 

 by having the feathers of the usual rounded shape, the square- 

 tipped feathers being a peculiarity of geese after they have got 

 their adult plumage, and particularly noticeable in the darker 

 species owing to the light tippings showing up in transverse 

 bars on the back and flanks. 



Even with big birds like this goose, however, eagles, and 

 in tidal waters crocodiles, prove a great nuisance b}' making off 

 with wounded birds, astonishing as it may seem that a com- 

 paratively slight-built eagle like the common ring-tailed river 

 eagle of India (Haliaetus leucoryphus) should be able to lift and 

 carry such a weight, which must much exceed its own. Grey 

 geese come in and depart at about the same time as the commoner 

 species ; their breeding-grounds are in Northern and Central 

 Asia and in Europe, including a few localities in Britain. They 

 also visit Europe in winter, but at home are the least numerous 

 of the regular visitants among the geese. It is just possible 

 they may be found breeding in Kashmir ; the nest is a mass 

 of reeds, &c., piled upon the ground near water, and the eggs 

 white, and about half a dozen in number. The goslings have 

 black legs at first. In Hindustani this species is sometimes 



