THE BEAN GOOSE AND PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 67 



alike — it has been considered advisable to include them 

 both in this article.^ 



The arrival of the Wild Geese in autumn is looked 

 upon by the country people as a kind of land-mark in the 

 calendar, being a subject of popular observation ; and when 

 they come before their usual period it is said to be a sign 

 of an early winter. They are generally seen for the first 

 time in the season passing high overhead in a wedge-shaped 

 flock,^ the attention of the people in the neighbourhood 

 being usually attracted to them by the well-known " Honck, 

 honck," of the birds ; and, when they are descried, they are 

 usually seen in stately and marshalled flight three or four 

 hundred feet high in the air. 



Amongst many records of their arrival in the county in 

 autumn from 1800 to 1886, kindly given to me by Mr. 

 Hardy, Oldcambus, the earliest is dated the 1st of October 

 1884, when they came to the Broad Bog, near Penmanshiel, 

 just as harvest ended, and continued there in great numbers ; 

 the average date of their first appearance in autumn is the 

 26 th of October, when they are generally observed flying 

 from the north-west to the south-east. 



They have certain favourite resorts, which are usually 

 on bare, open, moory ground, such as in the locality last 

 mentioned, or the Hule Moss in the parish of Greenlaw. 

 They also frequent large open fields where they can have 

 a good view of the approach of an enemy. When a flock 



1 The Earl of Haddington mentioned to me in a letter in 1887 that, in his 

 experience, the most of the Wild Geese seen in Berwickshire are Bean Geese. Mr. 

 Gray, ^VTiting of this S23ecies in the Hlstcrry of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, 

 vol. vii. p. 465, says : " This bird seems to have been very scarce in the winters 

 of 1874-75, the Pink-footed Goose having apparently taken its place. Unusual 

 numbers of the latter bird have been seen and killed in Berwickshire and East- 

 Lothian, and even in Stirlingshire, where it has hitherto been a complete stranger." 



2 It is supposed that by flying in the sliape of a wedge, or a straight line, they 

 cut the air with greater ease individually than if they flew in a confused flock, 

 and that the leader drops behind when fatigued, his place being taken by anotlier 

 bird. 



