Correspondence.



183



with birds of brilliant hues about one, mayhap unknown to Museum

researchers, treating one in a familiar manner in ignorance of man¬

kind and aviculture. [H. D. A.]



IMPORTANT NOTICE.


As the Editor will be in Italy during April and May, it is

particularly requested that all articles, etc. be sent to Mr. SETH-

SMITH at the Superintendent’s office of the London Zoological

Gardens, who has very kindly undertaken to see to anything in Mr.

Astley’s absence. The Editor, however, hopes to have stocked

sufficient ‘ copy ’ for the May and June numbers of the Magazine ;

and ivill have, if members will be good enough to send in more as

soon as possible.



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ®c.


TAME WILD GEESE.


THE DUCHESS OP BEDFORD writes, apropos of Miss Dorrien-Smith’s

account of the tameness of Wild Geese [in the March Mag. :]—“There is no

“ doubt that wild geese do get very tame when left in peace. We bought seven

‘ 1 Brent Geese the other day from a man who had caught them in the nets on

“ the Lincolnshire coast. They were pinioned on arrival, and at the end of a

“ week were feeding on the banks of the pond with some of their own kind

“ which we bought from the same man three or four years ago, Isay, ‘ at the

“ end of a week,’ but they joined the others as soon as they were put out, only

“they were more wary at first, and took to the water.”


“ A Pink-footed Goose, which had its wing broken on Fair Isle, walked

“about on the island, comparatively tame, for two or three years.”


“ The large flocks of Wigeon which come here (Woburn Abbey) in the

“ winter, remain on the grass until one is well within gun shot, then fly round,

11 and settle again.


“ The Pochards and Tufted Ducks, which come in hundreds in the winter,


‘ ‘ are as tame as the pinioned birds. ’ ’



Mrs. NOBLE, who is very much interested in her aviary, writes that she

has been rather amused with two little incidents. She has a Bleeding-heart

Dove that roosts every evening on a perch, and a little Steel Finch sleeps on the

back of the Bleeding-heart, nestling down amongst its feathers for warmth.



