ANSKK ANSER 



79 



reedy edges of small streams, and in such cases the nest is often 

 all alone. Alpheraky records having found nests of this description 

 on the small streams of the Tian Schan. 



The number of eggs laid is anything from four to twelve, and 

 in very rare cases as many as fourteen. The usual clutch is 

 probably six to eight. Incubation lasts twenty-eight days. 



Gobel gives the dimensions of fifty-one eggs as follows : — 



Average 3'47 x 2'37 inches (= 88'2 X 60:3 mm.) 

 Greatest length 3'75- inches (~ 95'5 mm.) 

 Greatest In'eadth 2'57 inches {- 65'5 mm.) 

 Minimum length 3'12 inches (= 79'5 mm.) 

 Minimum breadth 2'10 inches (= 53'5 mm.) 



Taczanowsky gives the measurements of Grey Lags' eggs from 

 Dauria as from 79'6 to 89'0 mm. in length and from 58 to 59 mm. 

 in breadth. 



The eggs are just like those of the domestic goose. The shell 

 is fairly smooth and satiny to the touch and the texture fine and 

 close and decidedly strong. The colour is a pale cream or buffy- 

 white, occasionally with a very faint greenish tinge in it. The 

 shape is a fairly regular elliptical oval. 



The goslings leave their nests very shortly after they are hatched 

 and within twenty-four hours are generally led by their parents to 

 the nearest water. 



General Habits. — In Assam, except in the Brahmapootra and the 

 larger rivers, such as the Surma, etc., it goes about in only small 

 parties of some ten or a dozen, but Cripps met with it in Dacca 

 on the Megna in a flock numbering about '200. This was the only 

 time he noticed the Grey Lag in Dacca. As one wanders farther 

 west, the flocks become more and more numerous, until in the 

 western Provinces sportsmen speak of flocks numbering their 

 hundreds which run into thousands. 



It is a bird of all elevations and is very common in Cashmere 

 in winter, and in other suitable places up to 6,000 feet or more. 



" A Member of the Society " states that no geese are found in 

 the Konkan, Deccan, or Khandeish, but he records an A user, by 

 which he must refer to the present species, from Gujerat ; here 

 he says that it is not common, but others have obtained them in 



