206 



GREY GEESE. 



THERE is no other division of our British wildfowl, the 

 delineation of which I approach with so much incertitude, 

 and conscious lack of precise knowledge, as the little genus 

 defined by coast-gunners as " Grey " Geese. The genus 

 consists of but four members, all closely resembling each 

 other, hardly to be distinguished except when actually in 

 one's hand, and all bearing a strong family likeness to their 

 domesticated descendants of the farm-yard. 



This uncertainty arises from no scarcity of the birds, or 

 lack of opportunities for observing them. During six 

 months out of the twelve the Grey Geese come almost 

 daily under the observation of the punt-gunner on the coast; 

 while, inland, they are the only geese met with. The Brents 

 and Bernicles (which form the " Black Geese " division of 

 fowlers), never quit the salt water : hence the long skeins 

 of wild geese so often seen passing overland, all belong to 

 the Grey division, but who can say to which species ? 



The difficulties which surround the problem of the specific 

 identity of this group of birds arise neither from their 

 scarcity, nor from any peculiar wariness on their part which 

 is not common to all wild geese. It is rather the unprac- 

 ticable, or inaccessible nature of their chosen haunts, and the 

 resulting impossibility of obtaining a sufficient number of 

 specimens at different periods, that leaves us so much in the 

 dark as regards their specific distribution. 



These remarks are undoubtedly at variance with the very 

 confident and positive assertions of other writers on this sub- 

 ject ; but they rest on experience, which always leads one 

 to sift questions for oneself, and not to accept statements 

 as facts merely because they are in print. In this study it 



