34 Geese of Europe and Asia 



mode of life, breeding, migrations, and winter quarters ; and I do not undertake to give an 

 exhaustive statement of all that is known in these respects, since the compilation would 

 occupy too much time and labour. 



Passing over, then, such attributes and habits of this species as are common to geese 

 in general, I have endeavoured to discuss in some detail those which are peculiar to the 

 grey-lag. 



The grey -lag arrives at its breeding-grounds earlier or later, according to the 

 latitude in which these are situated. In the temperate zone the geese appear as early as 

 February or the beginning of March ; later in the more northerly, and earlier in the more 

 southerly districts, although, on the whole, the birds may be said to arrive in the early spring. 



They almost always come in considerable flocks, cackling incessantly, and immediately 

 on arrival proceed to look for suitable places for building their nests. 



The older birds, although flying in the general flock, are already paired, as, like the 

 swans, grey-lags pair once for all. The young birds begin to pair immediately on arriving 

 at the spot ; this being usually accompanied by fights among the ganders of the same age, 

 and the pursuit of females by males, as occurs in ducks. The younger birds which are not 

 yet sufficiently mature to breed, hold aloof from the adults in separate small flocks, although 

 in the neighbourhood of the breeding-grounds of the latter. When the site has not under- 

 gone any essential change since the previous year, the geese usually occupy the same places 

 for their nests as before, perhaps even the same tussocks and bushes where last year's 

 nests 1 were situated. In densely populated localities the grey-lags usually build their nests 

 in the safest and least accessible spots, where man's foot appears but rarely or not at all ; 

 if in the neighbourhood of great lakes, they usually nest at a considerable distance from 

 the shore, or on islands overgrown with vegetation and surrounded by deep water, in moist 

 places, or in such reedy recesses as are most secure from man on account of their in- 

 accessibility. In desolate regions, where the geese feel themselves relatively safe, they may 

 be met with breeding even on small streams, whose banks are overgrown with rushes or 

 other tall or thick vegetation sufficient to hide the nest, and later on, in case of danger, the 

 young goslings. Along such small streams I have occasionally started pairs of old birds 

 from their nests in the valleys of the Hi among the foot-hills of the Thian-Shan. 



The nest is built by both parents with all kinds of dry materials — reeds, kuga, chakan 

 (sedges and rushes), stems and twigs of various bushes, leaves of steppe-grass, etc., according 

 to the surrounding vegetation ; no small amount of such material going to form a single nest. 

 A great heap of it is gradually piled up, sometimes to a foot in height and as much as three 

 feet in diameter, on the top of which is the hollow itself. Although the nest is constructed 

 by both parents, incubation apparently falls to the lot of the female alone, although the 

 opinion also exists that during the absence from the nest of the latter the male temporarily 

 takes her place, a view which to me personally seems extremely unlikely. Of course, the 

 lining immediately under the eggs is formed of down from the breast of the female, with 

 which the former are also covered when the parent leaves the nest. During the hatching of 

 her brood by the female, the gander never strays far away, and watchfully guards his future 

 progeny. 



The nest of the grey-lag is thus not built in the true sense of the word, but is simply 

 a piled-up heap of all kinds of rubbish, and if there be a trace of structural art in its arrange- 



1 This is frequently the case with some of the ducks. 



