THE GREY LAG-GOOSE. 55 



it bred in great numbers ou Sorvaag lake, in Faeroe, but it has long since been 

 driven away by the persecution of the islanders, and now only occurs as a spring 

 and autumn visitor. 



It winters in Southern Europe, Northern Africa, Burmah, and China, and at 

 this season is a very abundant species in the jheels and larger tanks in India. 



In Scotland it is more or less resident throughout the year, collecting at its 

 summer haunts by the middle of March. The young are able to fly by the end 

 of July, and the flocks leave again by the middle of September. The Grey Lag- Goose 

 is the first of the Geese seen on passage in England in the autumn. Colonel 

 Irby (Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar) says that in some winters enormous 

 numbers frequent the Laguna de la Janda, and the various lagunes of the marisma 

 of the Guadalquivir, arriving about the aoth of November. The earliest arrivals 

 in two consecutive years, in the former locality, being October 25th and November 

 8th. They commonly commence leaving again about the middle of February, and 

 are gone by the first week in March. It is common in Sardinia in winter. 



The late Mr. Robert Gray, in his charmingly written " Birds of the West of 

 Scotland," speaking of the " Geadh-glas," (the Gaelic name of this Goose), says : 

 " Nothing can be more desolate looking than some of the haunts of the Gray Lag 

 in the outer Hebrides. In North Uist especially, where it breeds away from the 

 cultivated tracks on the west side of the island, the nests are usually found on 

 the most barren part of the moor, out of sight and hearing of all that tells of 

 cultivated life. In Benbecula and South Uist there is perhaps less of that feeling 

 of desolation to picture ; in one or two spots, indeed, the nursery scenes are com- 

 paratively bright and fair ; still the very cries of the birds, as they cross the path 

 of the wearied traveller on the Hebridean highways, are so full of lament and 

 disquietude, that when, at the close of day especially, the disturbed group rise 

 one after another in alarm from their dreary repose, the blending of voices becomes 

 perhaps, one of the most memorable sounds that the ornithologist can listen to." 



The nest is a large, rough structure of dead grass and sedge, situated and 

 concealed in heather, two to three feet deep. Mr. Gray says it resembles the nest 

 of a Great Black-backed Gull, when found breeding on heath-clad islands, with 

 the exception of being lined with down and feathers, and is generally placed 

 amongst coarse grass or heather. 



The late Charles St. John says, that in Sutherlandshire, he has found them 

 embedded in the wild garlic, which, with its bright and beautiful green, covers 

 the islands in the lochs. 



The eggs, which are buried in down and feathers, plucked from the breast 

 of the sitting bird, are from four to six, and in some cases more, and twelve and 



