2966 THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1872. 
Nor are we disappointed by Mr. Gray’s pages. We have only 
space to epilomise the more interesting facts which are to be 
gleaned from them. We learn that the graylag goose is the only 
wild goose which at the present time breeds within the limits of 
the British Islands. This fine bird 
“Ts now almost wholly confined during the breeding-season to some of 
the bleakest bird-nurseries of the Outer Hebrides. There it leads a com- 
paratively quiet life, being but seldom molested, save at the season when 
the slender crops are being gathered, and even then the native farmers 
prefer the practice of driving it off by lighting fires, to the extreme measure 
of powder and shot. For the last hundred years, indeed, the flocks of wild 
geese that collect about that season—and a very important one it is to these 
isolated husbandmen—have been kept at bay by fires alone. As soon as 
the breeding-season is over the geese gather into large flocks, and are then 
very destructive to farm produce of all kinds; indeed, it requires the utmost 
watchfulness on the part of the crofters to keep them in check. Several 
fires are made in the fields, and kept burning night and day; by this means 
the crops are to a great extent saved, but the moment any of the fires are 
allowed to fail, the geese, which are continually shifting about on wing, 
suddenly pitch on the unprotected spot, and often do much mischief before 
they are discovered.” 
It occasionally happens that in the wild districts of the North- 
Western Islands the ornithologist who has been adventurous 
enough to penetrate them is favoured by spectacles which are 
calculated at once to astonish and delight him. Speaking of the 
hooper, Mr. Gray has recorded that on Loch Bee, in South Uist, 
which is never known to be frozen over, this is an especially 
numerous species in severe weather, as many as four hundred 
having been seen there in one flock. And again, the great 
northern diver (which has not been known to nest in the Hebrides) 
is occasionally seen in considerable numbers upon its return from 
its breeding-haunts in August. 
“ They return some time in August, and are seen in groups of fifteen to 
twenty birds, swimming near the shore immediately on their arrival. I 
observed a gathering of this kind on the west side of Benbecula on the 29th 
of August, 1867, and was told by a friend residing there that he had seen 
them fully a fortnight before. All the birds were in brilliant summer 
plumage, and, as a group, formed a spectacle which is not often looked upon 
by even the most fortunate ornithologist.” 
