Geese on the Mountains 387 



and leaving them there, almost in a state of nature, and 

 often far away from human habitation, till near the time of 

 the autumn sales. In spring, I have sometimes seen a pair 

 or two making extended flights. It seems rather strange at 

 first to meet with a large flock of geese (at that time the 

 adults are in the moult, and all are unable to fly) high up 

 upon the mountains, but one soon becomes accustomed to 

 the sight here. They live there for a month or two, and 

 seem to thrive admirably upon what they are able to pick 

 up for themselves ; such pickings are, of course, mainly 

 vegetable, but, amongst other things, the large black slug 

 (Arion ater) seems to be welcomed as a bonne-bouche. The 

 geese nearly always hatch their eggs out of doors, too, 

 either at the roots of the spiraea hedges, or in neat little 

 tent-shaped huts of straw that are put up for their protec- 

 tion from the weather. An old gander keeping watch at the 

 entrance to one of these huts, while his partner is brooding 

 within, is one of the common sights of the country in 

 spring. He shakes his wings and hisses vigorously upon 

 the approach of a stranger ; but one is driven to wonder 

 what sort of a defence of his castle he would make, in the 

 event of a hungry vixen, or a fulpar, coming along. When 

 the flock has been turned on to the mountain, it is astonish- 

 ing that so few of them fall a prey to foxes. 



When crossing the Ddwallt range one day with a farmer, 

 we came upon one of those curious jelly-fish-like fungi (I 

 think Soppittiella sebacea\ so frequently seen on a moor, and 

 he informed me that his geese were very fond of them. 

 He had not an idea of the true nature of the substance, but 

 called it " Cleaning of the stars," from a belief in its celestial 

 origin. " Star-jelly " is another name given to such Fungi, 

 from a like belief ; and they share with Tremella mesenterica, 

 sometimes found growing on rotten wood, the designation 

 of " Fairy butter," from the use to which they were formerly 

 put by the Little People. 



A mycologist would find the neighbourhood of 

 Llanuwchllyn a happy hunting ground ; for, fostered by 

 the dampness of the climate, Fungi are particularly 

 numerous there in autumn. " Inkhorns," and the beautiful 



