208 BIRD- LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



ideal of a "bedroom," it would be "ten square miles of 

 dead-level sand, over which the highest spring-tides never 

 flow." 



Such are the two desiderata of these wary fowl, and to a 

 locality affording both requirements, the Grey Geese come 

 year after year, arriving in successive contingents till their 

 full numbers are made up by about the end of October. 

 Their normal habit, in common with the whole genus Anser, 

 is to feed by day and to retire to sleep by night. But in 

 October, when they first arrive, they find the fields full of 

 workpeople, harvesters gathering in and leading the corn. 

 Hence they are compelled temporarily to vary what is other- 

 wise their normal disposition of time, in order to suit the 

 exigencies of the moment. At that season, hundreds of 

 Grey Geese may often be seen sitting huddled together during 

 the day at their roosting places on the sand-flats. Now and 

 then a detachment will rise, take a cruise inland, as though 

 to reconnoitre the stubbles, and then return to their enforced 

 meditations. But at dusk, as soon as the harvesters retire 

 and the " coast is clear," away they speed in full force to 

 gather in their share of the farmer's crop. 



In several works on sport and natural history these birds 

 have been described as night-feeding fowl a mistake which 

 has probably arisen from some such circumstances as those 

 just described. The authors in question have arrived at a 

 false conclusion, based on a half-truth. All Geese feed by 

 day; and although at times compelled by extraneous circum- 

 stances to modify their normal life-habits, yet such variations 

 are only temporary and exceptional. They are caused by 

 the force of chance circumstances, and abandoned as soon as 

 the causes cease to operate. In November, when the harvest 

 is completed, and the fields comparatively deserted, the 

 Geese no longer dream of nocturnal excursions. They then 

 resume their temporarily disturbed habits, and as regularly 

 as the sun rises, may be seen winging their way inland to 

 the stubbles, and returning as regularly at dusk to spend 

 the night on the sand-flats of the coast. 



I should here mention that, never having had any shooting- 

 ground to which these Geese resorted to feed, my experience 



