SEA-FOWL SHOOTING. 127 



origin of our common domestic ^oose. ^ These are well known to all 

 country people _ in Britain, from the circumstance of their always 

 flying in a particular figure — that of a wedge. They are a diificult 

 bird to approach in regular hunting form. They are shy and wary 

 to a proverb. When they arrive in winter, they frequent the sea- 

 coast, and little rivulets and creeks, feeding on marine and other 

 grasses,^ and display a great partiality to green wheat. The only 

 mode of getting within range of them is by ambush, or advancing 

 lUpon them under cover of some kind. Colonel Hawker recom- 

 mends that we "ascertain in the water meads what part they have 

 used (which we shall be able to see by their _ dung and feathers), 

 and then we should wait for them at dusk in some ambush that 

 commands the fresh places adjoining. Contrive, if possible, to get 

 the line of a dyke_ or drain, so as to take their company in the 

 flank." Mr. Daniel likewise says : — "Theii- flight is always (ex- 

 cept in_ thick fogs) very elevated; their motion is smooth, ac- 

 companied with little rustling, and the play of the ^vings seems 

 pever to exceed two or three inches ; the regularity with which 

 ^hey are marshalled implies a sort of intelligence superior to that 

 of other birds, which migrate in disorderly bodies. The arrange- 

 ment observed by the geese is at once calculated to preserve the 

 ranks entire, to break the resistance of the air, and to lessen the 

 exertion of the squadron. They form two oblique lines, like the 

 letter V ; or, if their number be small, only one line ; generally 

 they amount to forty or fifty, and each keeps its_ rank with ad- 

 mirable exactness ; the chief, who occupies the point of the angle, 

 and first cleaves the air, retii-es, vrhen fatigued, to the rear, and 

 the rest by turns assume the station of the van. Pliny describes 

 the wonderful harmony that prevails in these flights, and remarks 

 that, unlike the cranes and the storks, which journey m the ob- 

 scurity of the night, the geese are seen pursuing their route in 

 proad day.'* 



The wild goose generally weighs about ten pounds; and measures 

 two feet nine inches in length, and five feet in bi-eadth. The bill 

 is thick at the base, tapers towards the tip, and is of a dullish red 

 hue, with the nail white. The head and neck are brown, tinged 

 with dull yeUow, and from the separation of the feathers, the latter 

 appears striped downwards. The upper part of the plumage is of 

 % deep brown, mixed with ash-gray ; each feather is lighter on the 

 edges, and the lesser coverts are tipped with white. The shafts of 

 ihe leading quills are white, and the webs gray, and the tips black. 

 The secondaries are black, tinged A^dth white. The breast and 

 belly are crossed and clouded with dusky and ash colours on a 

 whitish ground. The tail feathers and vent are of a snowy white- 

 aess. The middle feathers of the tail are dusky, tipped with white ; 

 :hose adjoining more deeply tipped, and the exterior ones are nearly 

 all white. The legs are pale red. . _ 



During any succession of frosty days, especially if accompanied 

 with a snow-storm, there are few places on the British coast which 



