186 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



in front of my house, picking up worms and insects 

 within a few feet of the windows. When alarmed, 

 they retire to a stream which runs along one side of 

 the garden. 



WILD GOOSE. 



THE flocks of wild geese which visit our fens and 

 corn lands in the winter season, and which consist 

 principally of the bean* and white-fronted f kinds, 

 are much less numerous than formerly, when scarce 

 a day passed without more or fewer flying over the 

 village : now it is only occasionally that we see or 

 hear them at all. This is attributed by some per- 

 sons to the circumstance of rye crops being much 

 diminished, in consequence of the improvement 

 which has taken place in the cultivation of the land, 

 enabling it to bear wheat in many places where only 

 rye could be grown before. It has been observed, 

 that these birds are always much attracted by young 

 rye ; the tender blades of which they devour with 

 avidity, and which, being sown earlier than wheat, is 

 often in a state of great forwardness by the end of 

 October or beginning of November. One individual 

 assures me that the enormous flocks which he 

 used to see about thirty years back, at this period 

 of the year, on the rye-lands in Great "Wilbraham 

 parish almost exceed belief. Very little rye is now 

 grown there, or anywhere else in this neighbour- 

 hood, and no such flocks are seen at the present 

 day. 



* Anser segetum, Steph. t A. albi/rons, Steph. 



