60 GREY- LAG GOOSE. 



'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. 



