GREY LAG GOOSE. 409 



between the various species, the legend he mentioned doubtless 

 referred to Wild Geese in general, and may therefore be 

 accepted as the first reference to the bird under notice. 



We are told that : 



" Not farre from Whitby is a peice of grounde called 

 Whitby stronde, over whch the inhabitantes affyrme that noe 

 wildgoose can flye ; yf the reporte be as true as yt is oulde, 

 there must needes be some secret antipathic betwene the ayre 

 of that place and that kinde of fowle ; if yt be a tale I wonder 

 much that soe palpable a lye shoulde, from many adges, be 

 nurished by many men of worthe, whom yt ill beseemeth to 

 give vent to such base ware." (Cott. MS. p. 30.) 



Camden told of this supposition, the reason for which was 

 ascribed to the great sanctity of St. Hilda, the Patroness of 

 Whitby ; hence the rhyme : 



" If the Wild Goose lights in Whitby Strand, 



The least bairn that is may take her up in his hand " ; 



and Sir Walter Scott also took notice of the old fable, thus : 



" Then Whitby's nuns exulting told, 



.... how sea-fowls' pinions fail. 

 As over Whitby's towers they sail, 

 And, sinking down, with fluttering faint, 

 They do their homage to the saint." 



(Marmion, Canto 2, Stanza xiii.) 



Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : 



Anser ferns. Grey-lagged Goose A specimen was killed last 

 spring near Doncaster and is now in the possession of Hugh Reid ; 

 it is obtained about Sheffield ; it is rare near York ; F. O. Morris says 

 it is common in hard winters ; not common about Barnsley ; common, 

 according to H. Denny, at Walton Park. Arthur Strickland says 

 ' I have never met with this bird in this county in my life, though it 

 may have been here formerly, or have been overlooked. It is quite 

 a mistake to suppose the name meant Grey Legged Goose, as some 

 have suggested. The fowlers on the Carrs formerly distinguished two 

 kinds of Goose frequenting them, the Grey Lag and the Carr Lag ; 

 which the Carr Lag was I cannot now determine." 



The Grey Lag Goose, from which our farmyard fowl is 

 descended, was formerly indigenous to Yorkshire, breeding 

 in the " Carrs " and low lying portions of the East and North 



