XXVII 

 GEESE IN INDIA 



SEVEN or eight species of goose have been re- 

 corded as winter visitors to India. With two 

 exceptions they honour us with their presence 

 only on rare occasions, and do not really form 

 part and parcel of our Indian avifauna. The exceptions 

 are the grey lag goose and the barred-headed goose, 

 which visit India every winter in their millions. It is 

 these that form the subject of this essay. It is difficult 

 for the dweller in the south to realise how abundant 

 geese are in Northern India throughout the cold 

 weather. Flocks of them fly overhead so frequently 

 that they scarcely attract notice. Each flight looks 

 like a great trembling, quivering V, floating in the air, 

 a V of which the angle is wide and one limb frequently 

 longer than the other. During flight geese are dis- 

 tinguishable from cranes and storks by this V-shaped 

 formation, and by the fact that they never sail on 

 expanded wings ; they progress by means of a steady, 

 regular motion of the pinions, and are able to cover 

 long distances in short time. Geese on the wing are 

 distinguishable from the smaller species of duck by 

 their larger size, and from Brahminy ducks {Casarca 



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