PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 75 



"May isf, 1893. 



" Expect two ' Barbarians ' * to-morrow, they were bred 

 here in October last. 



" I trust that the pink-foots at Holkham will pull off 

 a legitimate brood, but geese are given to illicit amours. 

 A white-fronted female on my pond, in spite of having 

 an apparently healthy male of her own species in com- 

 pany, last year took up with a bean gander and brought 

 three goslings into the world, but unfortunately only 

 one of them survived the process of pinioning. He 

 is a splendid bird now, all ' bean,' except a white- 

 fronted patch, f At last we have a nice sprinkle of 

 rain." l 



"June 23n/, 1893. 



" You may be interested to hear that I received three 

 young great black woodpeckers (T. martius] last night, 

 ^nd that I have two last year's lammergeiers (Gyp: barbatus] 

 flying about at complete liberty. We have, thank God, 



1 To the Editor. 



* Barbary mice (Mus barbarus). 



t Of the three species of wild goose mentioned here the Whitefronted 

 (i.e. white forehead) Goose (Anser albifrons) is a winter visitor to 

 Britain. Its principal breeding quarters are in Arctic Russia. The 

 Bean Goose (A. segetum}, which breeds also in Arctic Russia, and in 

 Novaya Zemblya and in Scandinavia, likewise comes to us in winter. 

 The third species of grey goose, to which reference is made by Lord 

 Lilford as 'pink-foots,' is the Pinkfooted Goose (A. brachyrhynchus], 

 which breeds in Iceland and Spitsbergen, but apparently not in the 

 district named above. 



