THE GRAY LAG GOOSE. 29 



fronted geese^ was bought for the collection. Happening to be 

 there myself on the 20th of November and 5th of December, 

 others were brought, which I purchased. My two birds were said 

 to have been killed in Westmeath, and the other in the west of 

 King's County. The three specimens exhibited black transverse 

 markings from the breast to the vent; an appearance caused by 

 single blackish feathers appearing irregularly, and exliibiting their 

 dark tips among the others. One only of them has the nail on 

 the bill all white ; a second has the upper third, and the other the 

 lower third, of that hue ; the remainder, in both birds, being- 

 pale reddish horn- colour. In the plumage at the middle of each 

 side and at the top of tlie upper mandible in one bird, a speck of 

 white appears, and is faintly indicated in the other two specimens. 

 The stomach of the last obtained was filled, according to the 

 preserver, with tender grass or blades of young wheat. We ate 

 this bird and found it good in quality; the flesh was very dark- 

 coloured. A few more of these geese were brought on sale to 

 Dublin about the middle of Pebruary, 1850.* 



Mr. G. Jackson (game-keeper) has met with the grey lag 

 goose — which he distinguishes accurately from the bean and 

 white-fronted — in various parts of Counaught. He remarks, 

 " They never mingle with the others, nor do I recollect ever 

 seeing more than seven or eight in a flock, and oftener three or 

 four. They frequent the upland pastures and cultivated lands 

 more than the other species. They were rather scarce, but a few, 

 at least, were to be found every winter; From their being larger 

 and considered a better goose, there was more attention paid to 

 them by the fowlers. I have shot many of them. In the winter 

 of 1834 I killed a grey lag goose with a piece of linen cloth 

 sev^ed round one leg ; it did not appear to be the manufacture of 

 this country." 



The grey lag goose is unknown to ray correspondents in the 

 south, and has never come under the notice of ornithologists in 

 the north of Ireland. The central parts of the island as to latitude 

 would therefore seem to be those visited by it. 



* Mr. R. BaU. 



