GRAY-LAG GOOSE. 159 



to be wide awake, and provide for their safety by flight. Their mode of flight is well 

 known. They fly throngh the air at a great height, either in single or Indian file, or 

 in two converging lines, which are constantly changing their position and form, so as to 

 resemble the letters Y or Y. 



The flight of the Gray-Lag Goose is effected by quick, but very slight strokes of the 

 wings; and when the leading bird is fatigued, he retires to the rear, while his place is 

 supplied by another; the leader of the band having the most difficult and arduous post. 

 The flocks varv in number from eight or ten to forty or fifty, or more. 



It has been remarked by Mr. G. Jackson, gamekeeper, as recorded by Mr. Thompson, 

 that in Connaught, Gray-Lag Geese "never mingle with the others, nor do I recollect ever 

 seeing more than seven or eight in a flock, and oftener three or four. They frecpient 

 the upland pastures and cultivated lands more than the other species. They were rather 

 scarce; but a few, at least, were to be found every winter. From their being larger, 

 and considered a better Goose, there was more attention paid to them by the fowlers. 

 I have shot many of them. In the winter of 1834, I killed a Gray-Lag Goose with a 

 piece of linen cloth sewed round one leg; it did not appear to be the manufacture of 

 this country." 



The note is the same as that of the tame Goose, and is too well known to recpiire 

 particular description. 



The food of the Gray-Lag Goose consists chiefly of grass, which it nips off very closely; 

 the tender shoots of young wheat, oats, or barley; and, when attainable, the seeds of 

 these plants, which are shed in harvest-time, and remain afterwards upon the stubble-fields. 



The Gray-Lag Goose is monogamous. 



The nest is placed near the shore on some of the little islets so common in our northern 

 lakes. In Sutherlandshire, Mr. C. St. John says the young are hatched by the middle 

 of May. 



The eggs, which vary from four to seven in number, are smooth and shining, and of 

 a yellow ivory Avhite colour. They measure in length three inches and a line by two 

 inches and a line in breadth. 



Incubation is completed in four weeks. 



A curious variety of the Gray-Lag Goose is recorded by Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, in 

 the "Zoologist." This bird, which was a male, was shot at Horsey, in Norfolk, about 

 the middle of November, 1847; it was marked with black about the belly, and between 

 the legs; the markings much resembling those found on the breast of the White-fronted 

 Goose, but somewhat less decided. 



With respect to the production of hybrids, Mr. Yarrell has recorded that "the Gray- 

 Lag Goose has bred with the Hooper Swan at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. The 

 Gray-Lag Goose, in a domestic state, has also produced young in two instances by union 



