140 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



171. GREY LAG-GOOSE. 



Anser cinereus. 



I am not aware of an instance of the capture 

 of this Goose in our district, although I have a very 

 strong impression that a solitary Wild Goose that I 

 shot on the Nen near Wadenhoe in my boyhood 

 belonged to this species, but I can speak positively 

 as to the occasional passage of flocks of Grey Lags 

 over the neighbourhood of Lilford in September and 

 October, from my intimate knowledge of their cries, 

 which exactly resemble those of our farmyard and 

 stubble Geese, who are no doubt lineally descended 

 from this species ; these cries differ greatly from 

 those of the three other species of " grey " Geese 

 that occasionally visit us later in the season. Of late 

 years I have neither seen or heard the note of 

 a Wild Goose in Northamptonshire, but many reports 

 of their passage near home annually reach me, 

 and although I am well aware that the present 

 species is considered to be rare in our part of 

 England, I am nevertheless inclined to think that 

 such reports in August, September, and the first 

 half of October are generally referable to the Grey 

 Lag. In this connection 1 may mention a flock of 

 twenty Geese passing southerly over Tichmarsh on 

 September 7, 1888, reported to me by one of our 

 gamekeepers, and fifty-five Grey Geese flying 

 south-westerly on August 6, 1889, over the manor 

 of Wadenhoe, reported by Mr. G. E. Hunt. I have 

 only one record of Wild Geese seen on the ground in 

 our neighbourhood before the middle of October, 



