6 i tfHE ZOOLOGIST. 



rather incredible ; it was said to have been seen by Frost (already 

 mentioned). He said he was sure it was not an owl. He is a pretty 

 good judge of birds : for instance, some small birds were flying 

 overhead ; he was asked what they were, and replied Goldfinches. 



■ shot one to see, and it was a Goldfinch. The tree, I think, 



was a scrubby bush of willow. I have not seen the man since 

 to question him. 



The Brent Geese seem to come to the Essex coast pretty 

 regularly about the beginning of the second week in October. 

 Sometimes the first I hear of are not seen at all ; with a fair 

 light wind they may be heard miles off at sea, far out of sight. 

 In October, 1880, my informant, a very experienced gunner, told 

 me he was afraid there were no young ones ; he was right, — 

 throughout the season, from the time of their first arrival, there 

 was not one young one to a hundred old ones. Last October my 

 informant about their arrival was another gunner, who lives 

 close to high-water mark in the part most frequented by the 

 geese ; he told me that there were young ones among them. 

 These men are pretty close observers of some things ; they know 

 when there are young among the geese by their voices, I soon 

 had an opportunity of verifying the presence of young geese — 

 Borne time in October last, I think — by examining a small flock 

 of fifteen or twenty with a telescope, the sun shining on them. 

 By watching them as they turned their sides to the sun, I could 

 make out that something like half of them were young of the 

 year. As far as I could find out, this was about the proportion 

 all through the season ; I think there were nearly, but not quite, 

 as many young as old. I only shot eighteen, seven of them 

 young. Other people's experience was much the same. To repeat 

 the proportions for the last four winters, we had : — 



1878 — 79, about one young goose to twelve old ones. 



1879 — 80, great numbers of young all the season. 



1880 — 81, about (or less than) one young goose to a hundred 

 old ones. 



1881 — 82, nearly as many young as old. 



(Young very numerous almost every season for about twelve 

 years up to 1878). 

 I do not think that of these birds the young and old migrate 

 separately ; they generally appear about the same date, some- 

 times all old, sometimes old and young together, and the presence 



