3U ANATlDiE. 



"Mr. Donovan had, about the year 1811, near the Cove of 

 Cork, a large flock of wild geese [A. ferus'?) which he allowed to 

 fly about liis place, where they bred. Tliey came to his whistle 

 regularly. The young birds were sometimes killed for the table, 

 and were considered by him much better than tame geese." ^ 



The only positive notice of wild geese breeding in this island that 

 I have met with, is that of Rutty, whose words are — " There are 

 two sorts [of " wild goose, Anser ferns "], the one a bird of passage, 

 that comes about Michaelmas, and goes off about March ; but there 

 is a larger kind, which stays and breeds here, particularly in the 

 Bog of Alleu.''^ Harris, in his ' History of the County of Down' 

 (1744), remarks : — "In a red bog in the Ardes, near Kirkiston 

 ^ ■^ * is also [i. e., in addition to the "land barnacle"] 

 found the great harrow goose." Smith, in his ' History of 

 Waterford' (completed in 1745), simply enumerates the "wild 

 goose, Anser sylvestris," among the birds of the county ; and, in 

 liis 'History of Cork' (completed in 1749), says : — "The wild 

 goose {Anser ferus) is common in winter, and frequents the more 

 uncultivated parts of this county." The " larger kind," named 

 by Eatty as breeding, implies at least that the white-fronted, from 

 its being considerably smaller than the bean and grey lag species, 

 is not meant. At that period, the latter is stated to have bred 

 plentifully in the fens of England, though of late years they, as 

 well as the bogs of Ireland, have been deserted by it. Although 

 Harris says nothing of what he calls the " great harrow goose " 

 breeding at the locality he names, an octogenarian friend informs 

 me that a relative often told him of his liaving robbed the nests of 

 wild geese at Kirkiston fo/o — " red bog " of Harris — near Kirk- 

 cubbin : the period at which he did so was previous to the year 1775. 



Mr. Yarrell observes that " now whole winters pass away 

 without a single example [of the grey lag goose] appearing in 

 the London market" (vol. iii. p. 56). Sir Wm. Jardine and 

 Mr. Macgillivray are silent on the subject of its occurrence at 

 any period of time or season of the year in Scotland, consequently 

 it was not met with during the breeding season in Sutherland, 



* Mr. R. Ball. 



