LETTERS ON OkNITfiOLOGlT. 61 



appeared at Leigh, on the north side of the mouth of the Thames ; 

 there is little or no feed for them there, and only geese which do 

 not know the country call there, but of course do not stay long. 

 Their ignorance was also shown by their foolishness when they 

 came on our coast ; a great many were shot for five days, but 

 these were very thin. Most likely they had been southward, but 

 had failed to find a good feeding-ground. I was not on the coast 

 till about Feb. 20th ; by that time the White-bellied Geese were 

 fat and almost unapproachable ; they were then mixed with the 

 black sort. They stayed, to my knowledge, till March 15th, 

 I believe much longer. As usual the white-bellied had no more 

 young with them than the black. If, as I suppose, the two 

 varieties are bred in different parts of the world, the cause of 

 failure of breed must be wide- spread. I wonder whether those 

 who have been at their breeding-places have noticed which variety 

 they saw. I think I told you that we have not only the two well- 

 marked varieties, but every intermediate shade — perhaps from 



intermediate places. 



******* 



It would be interesting to know whether the young birds 

 breed their second year. Any naturalist who has been at the 

 breeding-places would hardly fail to notice this, as they keep the 

 white-tipped secondaries, tertiaries, &c, till they leave us, and 

 they can hardly have lost them all by nesting-time. I have now 

 and then seen a white-tipped feather or two remaining on birds 

 otherwise in mature plumage. I take these to be birds in their 

 second winter. 



A passage from a letter of a correspondent, received some 

 time back, may interest you — speaking of Wigeon : — "They 

 are handsome birds, and it is a pretty sight to see them when 

 they have young. Though you may not have previously seen 

 the cock, no sooner do you disturb the hen, either with her brood 

 or off her nest, than he immediately makes his appearance and 

 is very noisy. They are rather late breeders ; I think the earliest 

 brood I have seen was in the first week in June in Sutherland." 

 I must write and ask the writer whether the males are "handsome 

 birds" then. I thought they lost their gay plumage about the 

 time the female lays. 



Some time, at your convenience, I should be glad to hear 

 something about your last change of " close-time" for wildfowl, 



