WINGED SWAN WILD CATS. 113 



would not go off, and the conflict ended at last by a lucky 

 blow from the barrels which stunned the swan. I was amused 

 at the boyish eagerness of so old a stager ; particularly as we 

 never lost a shot at ducks or anything else without his laying 

 it to my fault. I "had lifted my head too high" or done 

 something else showing my want of tact. The poor fellow 

 was in a sad plight, being ducked to the skin all over with 

 half frozen water. However, I made him walk quickly home, 

 and he got no damage from his exploit. The swan weighed 

 18 Ibs., and measured above seven feet from tip to tip. We 

 found that many shots had struck the wing feathers without 

 breaking them. 



Towards the end of February, whenever the ground is soft, 

 the badgers leave their holes, and wander far and near, 

 digging up the ground like pigs, in the fields as well as in the 

 woods. 



The wild cats are brindled grey, and I have observed that 

 domestic cats of the same colour are more inclined to take to 

 the woods and hunt for themselves than any others. When 

 they do so they invariably grow very large, and are most 

 destructive to game of all kinds. A large cat of this colour 

 found out some tame rabbits belonging to my boys, and killed 

 several of them. At last we saw him come out of a hole 

 where some white rabbits were breeding; and he was shot. 

 The brute had evidently been living on them for some time. 



At this season the bean goose and the pink-footed goose 

 feed very much on a coarse red-coloured grass which grows 

 in the peat mosses. They pull it up and eat the root, which 

 is somewhat bulbous shaped. While feeding on it they 

 become very heavy and fat, and have no strong or disagreeable 

 flavour. 



Though these two kinds of geese both feed and fly together, 

 still while on the wing and while on the ground they keep 

 somewhat apart. The bean geese are far the most numerous; 

 but there is generally a small company of the pink-footed 

 kind with them, and no one but a close observer would 

 perceive that they do not associate as closely as if they all 

 belonged to one family. 



A wounded brent goose, which I brought home, very soon 

 became tame, and fed fearlessly close to us ; indeed, I have 

 frequently observed the same inclination to tameness in this 

 beautiful kind of goose. 



