THE BEAN GOOSE AND PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 71 



Wedderlie about 7 p.m., and heard a Cuckoo at the same time. 

 He considered this to be unusually late for Wild Geese in that 

 neighbourhood. During spring they are very fond of visiting 

 ground newly sown with oats, which they greedily devour.^ 

 They likewise do considerable damage to young grass, and 

 render the pasturage foul with their droppings.^ They are 

 sometimes trapped on the fields which they frequent ^ by 

 ordinary rabbit traps being set and carefully covered with 

 fiine soil on the ground where they feed, but when any are 

 caught the flock does not usually return to the same spot 

 for a season.* 



As the haunts of Wild Geese in Berwickshire are grad- 

 ually getting fewer in number, and many localities which 

 were frequented by them in former times are now forsaken, 

 the following list of farms and fields in each parish of the 

 county which are still visited by them may not be without 

 interest, and may prove useful for future reference. The 

 information contained in the schedule has been supplied by 

 the correspondents whose names are given below, and whom 

 I take this opportunity of thanking for their kindness in 

 responding to my enquiries. 



1 "March 20th, 1858.— One of the outer fields on Penmanshiel, surrounded by 

 moor, was once an extensive bog, its name being the Braid Bog. Finished sowing 

 it to-day. It was then frequented by Wild Geese, which at night ate the corn not 

 fully harrowed in." — J. Hardy's MS. Notes. 



2 " October 5th, 1837.— One Goose will eat as much as a sheep, besides what it 

 will defile. Sheep will not graze after them." — J. Hardy's MS. Notes. 



3 Mr. Joseph Caverhill, Abbey St. Bathans, informed me on the 18th of January 

 1887, that Wild Geese had been sometimes trapped on Godscroft Woodheads by 

 Mr. James Hunter. He told me at the same time tliat, in the autumn of 1886, Mr. 

 William Allan made a successful double shot at Wild Geese on the farm of Bow- 

 shiel, bringing down a Goose with eacli barrel of his gun ; and that in the spring 

 of that year Mr. David Purves, gamekeeper, Butterdean, killed two Geese in the 

 same way on Harelawside. Mr. Caverhill likewise mentioned that Mr. John 

 Moffat, Bankhead, killed seven Geese on Fannanside, near Godscroft, in the 

 autumn of 1885. 



* A female Wild Goose was caught in a trap at Penmanshiel Moor in October 

 1842. The Geese never went near the spot where it was trapped during the 

 remainder of the season.— J. Hardy's MS, Notes. 



