ANSEE INDICUS. 87 



on the ground, and waving his hat at the geese in order to induce them to 

 approach, seems to have met with no response ; at all events, I can find no 

 bags, heavy or otherwise, recorded as having been made thus. 



They are, of course, almost entirely vegetable feeders, and it is 

 wonderful what damage a flock can do to young crops even in a single 

 night ; and where they are numerous, as they are in Upper India, and 

 visit the same feeding-ground night after night, they take no small 

 percentage of the wretched villagers^ winter crops. They will eat almost 

 any young, tender, green stuff, but probably prefer the late rice-crops to 

 any other. They feed, as a rule, during the night-time, but, where they 

 are not interfered with, commence to graze about 4 p.m. and continue on 

 the grounds until an hour or so after sunrise. 



Their flight is typically goose-like and in the usual V-formation. 

 Mr. Damant notes a very peculiar action of these birds : — " They then 

 appear flying in the form of a wedge, each bird keeping his place with 

 perfect regularity. When they reach the lake they circle round once or 

 twice, and finally, before settling, each bird tumbles over in the air two 

 or three times, precisely like a tumbler pigeon; after they have once 

 settled, they preserve no regular formation." 



As a matter of fact, each bird does not, as a rule, if ever, keep in its 

 exact place in the V, but all observers have noticed that geese and other 

 birds which adopt a V-shaped or line formation in flying constantly 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 

 Southern 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, so far as I can ascertain, since ' Gamc-Birds ' was 

 written, concerning the ))reeding of this goose. 



