INDIAN D UCKS AND THEIR A LUES. 351 



They breed throughout Asiatic Siberia, in Turkistan, Kashgar, 

 probably Northern Persia and on the Yangtse-Kiang, on which river 

 young birds have been taken. I can find no full description of their 

 breeding habits, but they are not likely to differ in any way from those 

 of Anser cinereus, the European Grey Lag, which lays from 4 to 6 eggs 

 in a rough, rather loosely built, nest of reeds, rushes and grass, placed 

 in the ground not far from water. Pryevalsky records breeding-places 

 in S.-E. Mongolia, the upper valley of the Huanyho and in Lake 

 Kohonoor, all of which places refer to the Asiatic form of the Grey Lag. 

 All notices referring to Europe and North Africa must be taken as 

 being of the true Grey Lag, A. cinereus, and I fancy that the majority 

 of those in Asia Minor, if not all, will be found to be of the same. 



They generally arrive in India in October, but do not get far south 

 or east until the end of November ; about Calcutta and east of that 

 they appear to come in in early and middle December. Of course every- 

 where they sometimes come in much earlier, and they have been record- 

 ed in the N.-W. in September. In the same way, though they all have 

 left India, as a rule, by the end of March, yet sometimes they stay far 

 later ; for instance only lately in our Journal Col. Unwin has reported 

 receiving four " Grey Lag geese (A. cinereus^ as late as the 2nd May in 

 Cashmere. It will be interesting, as he says, to see if they do stay and 

 breed, but I am afraid that there is little chance of it as their breeding 

 haunts are not far off ; and they are sure to return there. Adams did 

 state that they bred in Ladakh, but his remarks have never been 

 confirmed, and it seems he must have been mistaken. 



After Hume's long notes on shooting geese, given in " Game Birds," 

 it is very difficult to say anything more of any interest. As every 

 sportsman knows they are shy, wild birds and difficult to bring to bag, 

 but their wildness varies much according to how much the localities 

 in which they reside are shot over. When many of the natives have 

 guns, and there are also many European sportsmen, the Grey Lag and 

 every other kind of goose is an object as worthy of a stalk as any black 

 buck. In such places it is little use going out to collect a bag of geese 

 unless one has made up his mind to really work the business out 

 properly. If there are young crops of wheat, etc., in the district, the 

 sportsman should be out before daybreak, and he then may, by a careful 

 craw] through grass and wheat, wet with dew and very cold— it can be 



