on the Tameness of Wild Geese.



141



two gun shots were heard in the distance ! Now they seem to

realise that they are safer where they are, and never wander very

far. Their wild cries when they rise on the wing and circle round

are delightful to hear. A few years ago a White-fronted Goose was

taken, for it was so tame that a boy threw a stone at it, and by so

doing, captured it ; after which it was pinioned and turned out with

the other waterfowl, where it is still living happily with its Chinese

and Canadian cousins, being quite as tame as they are.


About three or four years ago a Greylag Goose was caught in

much the same way. It took a fancy to the Toulouse geese at the

farm, and was calmly driven into a wire enclosure, when it too was

pinioned, and, as the story hooks say, has lived happily ever after.


I may say that there are no foxes on the island, so that any

kind of waterfowl can be kept on the grass paddock and on the Pool,

beyond which they have the run of the sandbanks, of which the

Shelduck are especially fond, and the wild Widgeon and Pochards

come ashore to feed with the tame ducks.


A few years ago, six or seven Greylag Geese used to come and

feed in the field, and we set up various contrivances with nooses of

string to try to catch them, hut they were too wary and flew away

after a stay of a few weeks.


In March I expect that the White-fronted Geese will also

disappear and fly to their nesting-home in the far north : but in the

meanwhile they will have afforded great pleasure with much interest,

and I have hopes that it will he a case of au revoir.


[We hope Miss Dorrien-Smith will kindly continue to contribute

interesting notes and articles upon birds to be observed in the Scillv Isles.


Mr. Pycraft gives some information of interest with regard to the wild

“ Grey ” Geese in Section X of “ The British Bird Book,” p. 163, etc.


He writes : — ‘‘More than a hundred years ago, perhaps a hundred and

"fifty would be nearer the mark, the Greylag Goose bred in numbers in our

" English fens, where the young were annually taken and kept in a more or

“ less reclaimed condition with vast flocks of tame geese, which, it may

“ be remarked, are a domesticated race of this species.”


“Darwin, in commenting on this fact, remarks that though the

“reclamation of the Greylag must date back to very remote times, yet

‘ ‘ scarcely any animal which has been tamed for so long a period has varied

“ so little, for, save in the case of the white race, these domesticated birds-

“differ but slightly from the wild stock.”



