120 GREY-LAG GOOSE. 
eggs with some of the surrounding materials, whenever she 
leaves the nest for a short time; and it may serve as a 
safe guide to persons who go in search of the eggs, that if 
they are uncovered, they are forsaken, and are, consequently, 
not worth leaving in the nest. As soon as the Goose has 
laid her full number of eggs, she plucks the down off her 
breast, and disposes it in such a manner among the eggs, 
that they retain an equal temperature even at the changes 
of the weather, or during the short periods when she leaves 
the nest, once or twice a day.’ 
‘In four weeks the young come forth, and after remaining 
under the mother the entire first day, are subsequently led 
to the water, and made to swim to some small islet, where 
they can hide, and feed on the young blades of corn, grass, 
and duckweed. The gander redoubles his watchfulness on 
the increase of his family, and hardly ever leaves the party. 
On the approach of danger, the parents resort immediately to 
the shelter of rushes, standing corn, or long grass, attended 
by the whole brood; but when surprised on open ground, 
too far from shelter, the young lay themselves flat on the 
ground in some rut or hollow, and have even been known 
to be taken up in the hand, and carried away; but if they 
are near enough to the water, instinct teaches them to resort 
to that element for protection, where, by diving or swimming 
to the shelter of some cover, they may elude observation: on 
such occasions the parents fly round the intruders, uttering 
their inharmonious cries.’ Yarrell says that when the hen 
birds begin to sit, the males leave the fens, and collect in 
flocks near or on the sea. ‘The male and female are considered 
to unite for life. They return yearly to the same breeding 
places, arriving at them in March. 
A wild Grey-lag gander is recorded to have paired with 
a tame goose in a farm-yard. 
Male; weight, eight or nine pounds; length, two feet eleven 
inches; bill, large, pale yellowish red with a tint of orange; 
the tooth at the end greyish white. Iris, greyish brown; 
the eyelids pale yellowish red with a tinge of orange. Head, 
crown, neck on the back, and nape, greyish brown, the 
feathers of the latter disposed in rows or lines, forming a 
sort of furrows; neck in front, pale greyish white brown; 
chin, throat, and breast on the upper part, pale greyish 
brown; the last-named below, white, and barred on the sides 
with grey and greyish white. Back on the upper part, 
