The Grey Lag-Goose. s7 



purchaser being deceived by the size, but their flesh is coarse. Towards winter 

 they collect in great flocks, but in all seasons live and ^eed in the fens." 



The Rev. W. B. Daniel (" Rural Sports,'' p. 242, published in 1807) writes : 

 " This species inhabits the English fens, and it is believed does not migrate, as 

 in many countries on the Continent, but resides and breeds in the fens ; they sit 

 thirty days, hatch eight or nine young, which are often taken ; are esteemed most 

 excellent meat, and are easily tamed. The compiler took two broods in one 

 season, which he turned down, after having pinioned them, with the Common 

 Geese ; both parties seemed shy at first, but they soon associated, and remained 

 very good friends." From an old letter, originally printed in Professor Owen's 

 edition of "John Hunter's Essays," (Vol. II, p. 321), and published by Mr. 

 Harting, in "The Zoologist" for 1883, p. 383, he writes, William Walcot, Junr., 

 of Oundle, (Dec. 30th, 1790), states that, to the best of his recollection, it was 

 in the summer of 1773, that he took four little Goslings in the fens, between 

 Cambridge and Ely. 



Remains of the Grey Lag-Goose have been found in the fens of Cambridge 

 and Norfolk, and in river deposits near Salisbury. There was much discussion at 

 one time as to the origin of the term "lag" as applied to this Goose, and Mr. Skeat 

 has given what is no doubt the true derivation of the word; the early English 

 adjective " lag," meaning originally late, last, or slow ; consequently the Grey Lag- 

 Goose was the one which formerly lagged behind the others to breed in the fens.* 



The notice of the Grey Lag would be incomplete without some reference to 

 the enormous numbers of Geese formerly reared and fed in the fen districts. 

 Pennant says : — " During the season these birds are lodged in the same houses 

 with the inhabitants, and even in their very bed chambers ; in every apartment are 

 three rows of coarse wicker pens, placed one above another; each bird has a 

 separate lodge, divided from the others, which it keeps possession of during the 

 time of sitting. A gozzard, or Gooseherd, attends the flocks, and twice a day 

 drives the whole to water, then brings them back to their habitation, helping 

 those who live in the upper stories to their nests, withou.t misplacing a single 

 bird." 



Arthur Young, in the report published in 1798 to the Board of Agriculture 

 on Lincolnshire farming, tells how immense flocks of Geese were kept in the fens. 

 These were plucked four, or sometimes five times. The feathers of a dead Goose 

 were worth sixpence. In Wildmore fen, plucked Geese paid in feathers annually 



* Professor Newton, "A Dictionary of Birds," Part iii, foot-note, p. 372, quoting from Mr. Rowley, (Orn. 

 Miscell., iii, p. 213) says:— "that to this day the flocks of tame Geese in Lincolnshire are urged on by their 

 drivers with the cry of ' Lag' em, Lag'em.' " 



Vol. IV. K 



