152 SHOOTING THE GOOSE 



show for barley, newly-sown wheat, and young clover ; 

 and he attributed the variation in the strength of the 

 Yorkshire geese in different seasons almost entirely to 

 the fluctuation in the quantity of this their favourite 

 food. 



A marked spirit of clanship seems to exist among 

 all species of grey geese, but when they chance to 

 meet on the same feeding-grounds they will often 

 fraternise. An exception must, however, be made 

 in the case of greylags, which seldom intermix with 

 other geese under any circumstances. At Margam, 

 on the shores of Swansea Bay, which is a locality 

 strongly haunted by geese, the white-fronted species 

 are most numerous, whilst at Berkeley on the Severn, 

 the seat of Earl Fitzhardinge, three kinds are com- 

 monly found the bean and pink-footed being the 

 first to appear in autumn, and succeeded later by -the 

 white-fronted geese, which arrive in December and 

 leave at the end of February. 



The bulk of the grey geese which are shot in our 

 islands chiefly fall to the gun of the inland sportsman, 

 for there are very few places on the coast where they 

 are accessible to the punter. On the north shore of 

 the Tay Estuary, and also in the river Humber, I am 

 informed that geese sometimes come out to rest on 

 tht sandbanks, and on rare occasions, when tide and 



