THE BEAN GOOSE AND PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 69 



miles distant, he returned to Heughhead early on the fol- 

 lowing morning with his gun, and after a difficult stalk 

 succeeded in shooting two Geese out of a flock on Draeden 

 Field. ^ He sometimes used a stalking pony to get up to 

 the watchful birds, keeping it walking in front, between 

 him and them, to conceal his approach.^ Stalking Wild 

 Geese requires all the strength and ardour of youth on the 

 part of the sportsman, and yet we find from the following 

 letter, written by Mr. Alexander Brown, gamekeeper, Gosford 

 Lodge, that in 1871 Lord Wemyss, then in his seventy-sixth 

 year, was still enjoying that exciting sport : — " Gosford 

 Lodge, Longniddry, October 9th, 1886. I can quite well 

 remember the occasion of my dear old master shooting the 

 Wild Goose of which you speak. It was in the Bog Field 

 on Little Swinton Farm, about 7 o'clock on the morning of 

 the 15th of March 1871. There was a large flock, and his 

 Lordship got within forty yards of them. On the following 

 Saturday he shot other two Geese on Simprim Mains, not 

 far from Ladykirk Lodge, about 11 o'clock in the forenoon. 

 His Lordship was riding a dun pony. It was the last year 

 we were at LenneL"^ 



Great flocks of Wild Geese frequented the farm of Fenton- 

 barns, near Drem, East-Lothian, in the autumn, winter, and 

 spring months of 1867-68. They began to come there 

 about the end of November and left in the beginning of 

 April. The grass lands, as well as those sown with wheat 

 after potatoes, were their principal resorts ; but they had 

 certain favourite fields upon which they alighted and fed, 

 and seemed to prefer those which were either quite flat or 

 had rising ground in the centre, from which they could 



1 For this information I am indebted to Mr. James Bertram, the present tenant 

 of Heughhead Farm. 



2 Mr. James Hardy's MS. Azotes, 1842. 



3 This letter was written to Mr. John Miller, Ladykirlc West Lodge, now 

 forester to Colonel Milne-Home of Wedderburn, at the Grange, near Coldingham. 



