WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 347 



with it on one or two occasions in lona and Mull the specimens 

 which he obtained having been attracted by tame geese in the 

 poultry yard, with which they remained for some time. Mr John 

 Macdonald, Newton, has also informed me that it is rare in North 

 Uist : one was seen on his farm in 1856, and another was shot there 

 in the winter of 1868. This last specimen attracted Mr Mac- 

 donald's attention by its peculiar cry: it remained for several days 

 beside his semi-domesticated grey-lags, and seemed to prefer their 

 company to that of the domestic geese. Similar records have been 

 sent me from other islands, and also from some districts on the 

 mainland, all of which tend to shew that when single individuals 

 stray from the main body they readily take refuge, after a 

 time, among domestic poultry. In the West of Scotland its head 

 quarters are in the island of Islay, and I am indebted to Mr Elwes 

 for the following interesting notes which are the result of his own 

 observations on the species : " This is the common grey goose of 

 Islay. It arrives usually in the first week of October, and stays 

 till the second week in April. On their first arrival they keep a 

 good deal about the lochs, and feed in the marshy places around 

 them; but later in the year they go regularly to the stubble and 

 grass fields to feed, shewing a great partiality for particular fields. 

 They go in flocks of from three or four to one hundred or more, 

 and are not very difficult of approach to a good stalker when on 

 the fields, as there is nearly always some wall or ditch within shot 

 of them. The old birds sometimes have the breast entirely black, 

 but usually the black is in irregular bars. Neither the white- 

 fronted nor any of the geese except the brent, settle on the water 

 often, unless driven to do so, as they seem to prefer the land." 

 From this island, as has been remarked, stragglers appear to leave 

 the main body occasionally, and make their appearance here and 

 there as solitary visitors at farm steadings. The last deserter I 

 had an opportunity of examining a very beautiful male bird 

 was shot on the Clyde, near Dumbarton, on 15th January, 1868. 

 In the eastern counties of Scotland the principal flock of White- 

 fronted Geese seems to attach itself to the county of Elgin or 

 Moray, where the species appears to have attracted the notice of 

 the late Mr St. John many years ago. Southwards it is found 

 wandering in exactly the same way as has been observed in the 

 west. I have seen stray specimens killed in Forfarshire and 

 Aberdeenshire, and the Earl of Haddington informs me that a 



