866 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



alter their position, each leader retiring after a few minutes to the rear 

 and the second bird taking its place and then giving it up again in a short 

 time to the bird immediately behind. This has been much remarked 

 on in observations on migrating birds passing Heligoland. 



I have never seen any geese of this species tame, but Hume says he 

 has seen many, though they do not ever appear to assume the confidential 

 lap-dog familiarity of the Grey Lag. Their call is rather harsher and 

 more shrill than is that of the Grey Lag and very easily distinguishable 

 from it. 



They arrive in India in the end of October, but in Bengal and South- 

 ern India few put in an appearance before the end of November. In 

 the same way they leave these parts earlier than they do elsewhere, and 

 there is little chance of any being found after the end of February. 



Their headquarters for breeding seems to be the numerous lakes in 

 Ladakh, and they also breed throughout Thibet in suitable localities, 

 and probably also north of the Himalayas in many other parts. There 

 has been nothing recorded, as far as I can ascertain, since " Game 

 Birds " was written, concerning the breeding of this goose. 



Drew, writing of one of the many islands in the Tso-mourari Lake in 

 Ladakh, says : — 



" The island is about half a mile from the shore, near midway in the 

 length of the western side — it may be 100 yards from corner to corner 

 in one direction and 60 yards in another ; it is of gneiss rock, rising 

 only nine or ten feet above the water ; the soundings before given 

 show that there is about 100 feet of water between the island and the 

 near shore. This little place, being ordinarily undisturbed by man, is 

 a great resort of the gull, which in Ladakhi is called chagharatse; the 

 surface was nearly all covered with its droppings, and there were 

 hundreds of the young about ; most of these must have been hatched 

 near the beginning of July. Having heard that it was a matter of 

 interest with some ornithologists to learn about the nidification of the wild 

 (Barred-headed) goose, I was on the look-out for information concerning 

 it, and I found that this island is one of the places where it lays its eggs* 

 I was told by the Champas that they find the eggs there just before the 

 ice breaks up — say the beginning of May ; after that they have no 

 means of reaching the island. I myself found there a broken egg, but 

 at the time I was on the island (the last week in July) the young had 



