THE WILD GOOSE. 47 



remarkably knowing-looking old gander, who, with head erect, did 

 sentinel's duty. 



We now received our directions from Sandy. He pointed out 

 to us where we would find the entrance to the ditch, by crawling 

 up which we were to get into the same field, at any rate, as the 

 geese ; while he, by a circuitous route, was to reach a small 

 spinny on the far side of the said field, and from which he was to 

 alarm the birds quietly. Tom and I had a most horribly wet 

 stalk of nearly three-quarters of a mile in the ditch, which had lots 

 of water in it and was by no means too deep for sheltering pur- 

 poses, but we failed to get within 100 yards of our game. We 

 therefore lay down some fifty yards apart and awaited events with 

 what patience we might. Suddenly the old gander gave a 

 peculiar cry and the birds stopped feeding and ran together. Had 

 we been within range that would have been a grand chance 

 indeed, but almost immediately they rose, and, as luck would have 

 it, came right over us in a confused mass. Four of the big birds 

 fell at once to our double discharge, a fifth got away, and two 

 others fell dead outside the great field. 



The Bean Goose is one of the most frequently occurring of its 

 family in this country ; it breeds in various parts of the North of 

 Scotland, and for six months in the year may be found in enormous 

 " g a gg^ es " ' m Tipperary, Limerick and the midland counties of 

 Ireland; indeed, there is hardly a bog or marsh in these districts, 

 comparatively free from human intruders, that is not frequented by 

 them in large numbers. Except in extreme cold, when these are 

 sheeted in ice, their favourite feeding-grounds are inland bogs 

 and meadows, whence in the evenings they return for rest to the 

 mud banks of the coast. When deprived by severe and con- 



