CHAP, xix.] WILD GEESE. 151 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Wild Geese: Arrival of; Different kinds of Anecdotes of Shooting Wild 

 Geese Feeding-places Wariness Habits Breeding-places Black- 

 headed Gull Birds that breed on the Kiver-banks. 



ON the 2nd of March a flock of twelve wild geese passed 

 over my house, flying eastwards towards the Loch of Spynie : 

 these are the first birds of the kind I have seen this spring. 

 On the 6th I hear of the same flock being seen feeding on a 

 clover-field to the eastward, in the flat country between this place 

 and Loch Spynie. This flock of geese are said to have been 

 occasionally seen during the whole winter about the peat-mosses 

 beyond Brodie, there having been no severe frost or snow to 

 drive them southward. 



The first wild geese that we see here are not the common grey 

 goose, but the white-fronted or laughing goose, Anas albifrons, 

 called by Buffon V Oye rieuse. This bird has a peculiarly harsh 

 and wild cry, whence its name. It differs in another respect 

 also from the common grey goose, in preferring clover and 

 green wheat to corn for its food. Indeed this bird appears to 

 me to be wholly graminiferous. Unlike the grey goose too, it 

 roosts, when undisturbed, in any grass-field where it may have 

 been feeding in the afternoon, instead of taking to the bay every 

 night for its sleeping-quarters. The laughing goose also never 

 appears here in large flocks, but in small companies of from eight 

 or nine to twenty birds. 



Though very watchful at all times, they are more easily ap- 

 proached than the grey goose, and often feed on ground that 

 admits of stalking them. I see them occasionally feeding in 

 small swamps and patches of grass surrounded by high banks, 

 furze, or trees. The grey goose appears to select the most open 

 and extensive fields in the country to feed in, always avoiding 

 any bank or hedge that may conceal a foe. 



On the 10th of March last year, when out rabbit-shooting in a 



