CHAPTER NINETEEN WILD GEESE 



ON the 2 nd of March a flock of twelve wild geese 

 passed over my house, flying eastwards to- 

 wards the Loch of Spynie: these are the first 

 birds of the kind I have seen this spring. On 

 the 6th I hear of the same flock being seen feeding on a 

 clover-field to the eastward, in the flat country between this 

 place and Loch Spynie. This flock of geese are said to 

 have been occasionally seen during the whole winter about 

 the peat-mosses beyond Brodie, there having been no sev- 

 ere frost or snow to drive them southward. 



The first wild geese that we sec here are not the com- 

 mon grey goose, but the white-fronted or laughing goose, 

 Anser albifrons, called by Buffon I'Oye rieuse. This bird 

 has a peculiarly harsh and wild cry, whence its name. It 

 differs in another respect also fromthecommon grey<yoose, 

 in preferring clover and green wheat to corn for its food. 

 Indeed this bird appears to me to bewholly graminiferous. 

 Unlike the grey goose too, it roosts, when undisturbed, in 

 any grass-field where it may have been feeding in the after- 

 noon, instead of taking to the bay every night for its sleep- 

 ing quarters. The laughing goose also never appears here 

 in large flocks, but in small companies of from eight or nine 

 to twenty birds. 



Though very watchful at all times, they are more easily 

 approached than the grey goose, and often feed on ground 

 that admits of stalking them. I see them occasionally feed- 

 ing in small swamps and patches of grass surrounded by 

 high banks, furze, or trees. The grey goose appears to select 

 the most open and extensive fields in the country to feed in, 

 always avoiding any bank or hedge that may conceal a foe. 

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