The Zoologist— March, 1871. 2525 



the geese sit in one of five or six well-known flat fields, where they feel by 

 experience it is impossible for anybody to get near them : if much disturbed 

 they fly out to sea, but return again in a short time. The largest bird I 

 shot, an old gander, weiglied eight pounds eight ounces; and the smallest, a 

 young goose, sk pounds ten ounces, the latter a bird of the year I should 

 think. Graylags thus appear to differ greatly in their habits from bean 

 geese, the latter, as far as I am aware, never sitting on the sea, excepting 

 during very hard frosts, but always on the large flat bogs, sometimes three 

 or four hundred acres in extent, which are found through different parts of 

 Ireland. In the stomachs of several graylags that I examined, I found 

 salt water, gravel, grass, and what I at first took for some land of earth- 

 nut or root, but was kindly informed by Mr. A. G. More, of the Dublin 

 Society, they were " tubers produced by the salt-mareh club-root {Scirpus 

 marltimus), a plant which is common everywhere in marsh ditches along 

 the coast." One morning, just as the hard frost was breaking up, I saw 

 five Brent geese {A. torquatus) join the graylags on the lake, but with this 

 exception I did not see any other species of geese along that part of the 

 coast. I also wish to correct au other mistake, since discovered, in the same 

 paper. The goshawk, referred to there as being mentioned in ' Land and 

 Water,' March 5, 1870, was afterwards recognized by my brother as being 

 the American goshawk (A. atricapillm). This is the first time this bird 

 has occurred in this country. A second specimen, a female also, was shot 

 shortly afterwards near Parsonstown, King's County.— .i. B. Brooke; 

 Colebrooke, Brookehoro\ Fermanagh. 



Wild Swans ou the Thames.— During the hard weather at the beginning 

 of the year, several flocks of swans were seen at the mouth of the river. 

 Twenty-six were seen in one flock by the Nore light-ship; another flock of 

 ten were seen on the mud-flats opposite Leigh. The fisherman called them 

 the " little swans," evidently meaning Bewick's. As far as I can learn 

 three specimens only have been shot,— two Bewick's and one hooper. A 

 Bewick was shot by a fisherman with a hand-gun at the lower part of Leigh 

 Bay on the 94th of January (this bird weighed thirteen pounds) : another°of 

 the same species was shot on the 13th of February (this bird also weighed 

 thirteen pounds). The hooper weighed twenty-three pounds, and was °shot 

 during the third week in January. On the morning of the 1 5th of 

 February, just after daybreak, I came across a hooper (judging from the 

 size, which appeared to be as large as the mute swan) in the upper part of 

 Hadleigh Rey, but was not able to get nearer than 120 yards, owing to the 

 shallowness of the water.— ^1. H. Smee; February 20, 1871. 



Gadwall in East Yorlishirc.-On the 31st of January last a fine old male 

 gadwall [Anas strepera) was shot at Skerne, a village situated near the 

 Driffield trout stream, and about ten miles from Beverley. I saw the bird 

 at Mr. Richardson's, to whom it had been sent for preservation, and on 



SECOND SERIES— VOL. VI. n 



