A ROADSIDE NATURALIST. 



So they are continually reminded in no gentle terms 

 to " move on,'' which accounts for their restless feel- 

 ings and habits. Where not interfered with, I have 

 known them to be almost as tame and as confident 

 as thrushes. 



Wild geese — bean -geese, not bernicles or grey 

 lag-geese — will pitch in the farmer's fields to feed 

 on the clover that is sure to shoot up, young and 

 tender, when the stubbles are left fallow for a time. 

 Grass meadows also have great attraction for them. 

 I have seen them flying over the lowlands at the 

 base of the Surrey hills, where the farms are far 

 apart from one another, to favourite grazing-grounds, 

 in the season when they travel. A farmer's son I 

 knew — a keen shot and good roadside observer — rose 

 a gaggle from his father's farmyard pond early one 

 morning. That coot -footed little swimmer, the 

 phalerope, has pitched in a farmer's pond more 

 than once, where he swam about, light as a cork, 

 amongst the ducks. As to the snipe, he will come 

 in sharp weather to the drain near the farmer's back- 

 door, and remain there feeding, if he be not disturbed 

 or shot. Ignorant agitators have raved about our 

 waste lands ; what do they know about the matter? 



