354 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XL 



birds continue, one flock after another, to fly past, either to the right 

 or left, low down, but much too far off' to get a shot. When, however, 

 the birds fly kindly, it is very pleasant to hear the constant loud calls, 

 the swish-swish of wings as they pass answered by the crack of your 12- 

 bore, and the thud of the fat birds as they kiss mother Earth for the last 

 time. Of course, in this way, your bag of geese at all events wont take 

 many men to carry it, but there is no end to the variety both of the 

 game killed and the way of killing it. First, perhaps, come a flight of 

 whistlers in no formation of any sort, and you cover them with your 

 gun and let them go after you have made sure you could have dropped 

 a dozen, or, if you want food for your men, you do fire and drop a 

 couple. Then a few noisy, little Cotton-teal fly past in a follow-my- 

 leader fashion, each bird anxious to get in front of the others, and each 

 determined that no other shall pass him. Next a flight of mallard, pin- 

 tail or gadwall may pass, and the loud, dull smacks on the ground that 

 follow the report of the gun, mean so many good-eating ducks. As 

 a rule you will know what you have got by their appearance and flight, 

 but a shoveller will sometimes imitate the gadwall very closely, and the 

 result is disappointing. A flock or two of blue wing or grey teal may 

 now vary the sport, flying lower, but even quicker than the ducks, and, 

 last of all, in the distance, the geese will trumpet forth their approach, 

 and after their arrival flocks of all sorts will pass in increasing numbers 

 until it is too dark to see and, the bag collected, there is nothing left 

 but to go home. In the early morning the routine is reversed, and 

 the geese are the first to be got and the whistlers and Cotton-teal 

 the last. 



Geese are almost invariably vegetarians and get their food by 

 grazing, in which way large flocks will do immense damage to young 

 crops in a single night. They are destructive birds also, owing to the 

 fact that they pull so much of what they feed on, up by the roots, and 

 thus destroy what they do not eat. 



The eggs mentioned by Hume belonged, I believe, to A. cinereus 

 and not to a A. rubrirostris, with the exception of those he obtained 

 from Rattan Singh and which were laid by a tame goose. These 

 two eggs were quite pure white, fglossless, but compact, though 

 not very fine grained. They measured 3*55" by 2*45" and 3'4" 

 by 2-25". 



