44 GREY-LAG GOOSE. 



she plucks the down off her breast, and disposes it in 

 such a manner among the eggs, that they retain an 

 equal temperature even at the changes of the weather, 

 or during the short periods when she leaves the nest, 

 once or twice a day." 



"In four weeks the young come forth, and after re- 

 maining under the mother the entire first day, are 

 subsequently led to the water, and made to swim to 

 some small islet, where they can hide, and feed on the 

 young blades of corn, grass, and duckweed. The 

 gander redoubles his watchfulness on the increase of his 

 family, and hardly ever leaves the party. On the ap- 

 proach of danger, the parents resort immediately to 

 the shelter of rushes, standing corn, or long grass, 

 attended by the whole brood; but when surprised on 

 open ground, too far from shelter, the young lay them- 

 selves flat on the ground in some rut or hollow, and 

 have even been known to be taken up in the hand, 

 and carried away; but if they are near enough to the 

 water, instinct teaches them to resort to that clement 

 for protection, where, by diving or swimming to the 

 shelter of some cov^er, they may elude observation: on 

 such occasions the parents fly round the intruders, 

 uttering their inharmonious cries." Yarrell says that 

 when the hen birds begin to sit, the males leave the 

 fens, and collect in flocks near or on the sea. The 

 male and female are considered to unite for life. They 

 return yearly to the same breeding places, arriving at 

 them in March. 



A wild Grey-lag gander is recorded to have paired 

 with a tame goose in a farm-yard. 



