SHOOTING WILD GEESE 



CHAPTER XIX 



Wild Geese : Arrival of ; Different kinds of ; Anecdotes of — Shooting Wild Geese — 

 Feeding - places — Wariness — Habits — Breeding - places— Black - headed Gull — 

 Birds that breed on the River-banks. 



On the 2nd of March a flock of twelve wild geese passed over 

 my house, flying eastwards towards the Loch of Spynie : these 

 are the first birds of the kind I have seen this spring. On the 

 6th I hear of the same flock being seen feeding on a clover-field 

 to the eastward, in the flat country between this place and Loch 

 Spynie. This flock of geese are said to have been occasionally 

 seen during the whole winter about the peat-mosses beyond 

 Brodie, there having been no severe frost or snow to drive them 

 southward. 



The first wild geese that we see here are not the common 

 grey goose, but the white-fronted or laughing goose,' Anas albi- 

 frons, called by Buffon I'Oye rieuse. This bird has a peculiarly 

 harsh and wild cry, whence its name. It differs in another 

 respect also from the common grey goose, in preferring clover 

 and green wheat to corn for its food. Indeed this bird appears 

 to me to be wholly graminiferous. Unlike the grey goose too^ 

 it roosts, when undisturbed, in any grass-field where it may have 



' Moray. Not so numerous as the bean-goose. — C. St. J. 



