BIRDS 239 



your friend Mr. Thorpe and yourself can find it convenient to 

 come out during the day, you might get a good look at them with 

 the glass, as they are generally feeding at that time.' It is 

 scarcely necessary to say that we accepted the suggestion gladly, 

 and were rewarded for our trouble by disturbing a large flock of 

 Pink-footed Geese from the open surface of the marsh. Although 

 the weather was severe, and the cloud-capped hills that bounded 

 the horizon were robed in snow-drifts, the Geese were too wide- 

 awake to allow a close inspection. For once they were content 

 to pitch in a long line upon the grass, but when we attempted 

 to approach them by strategy, they lifted and joined the other 

 geese that were sitting out upon the sands. The ground upon 

 which these birds had been feeding for some weeks proved to 

 have been eaten very bare. It was covered with their droppings, 

 and many of their feathers strewed the ground; indeed this 

 last feature was so marked as to make us wonder whether the 

 Pink-footed Goose performs a partial moult in the spring of 

 the year. A few nights after our visit Mr. Smith shot one of 

 the Pink-footed Geese, and sent it to Mr. Thorpe. He had 

 previously had one successful evening with the same birds, and 

 assures me that the heaviest of the four turned the scales at 8 J 

 lbs. The other three Pink-footed Geese killed the same evening 

 weighed 5 lbs., 6 lbs., and 7 J lbs. The heaviest Bean Goose 

 that Smith ever scaled weighed 9 \ lbs. On the other hand, 

 a Pink-footed Goose which Nicol shot on the 2 2d of January 

 1891, only weighed 4 lbs. 14 oz., at the end of a spell of sharp 

 frost. The finest Grey Lag Gander I ever handled weighed just 

 8 lbs. Of nine White-fronted Geese shot together, the smallest 

 scaled 4 lbs., and the finest bird weighed just 6 lbs. The 

 heaviest White-fronted Goose that I ever weighed was shot in 

 Ireland in February 1887. It weighed 6 \ lbs; other birds of 

 the same species weighed 5 J lbs., 5 lbs., 4f lbs. 



Very few Grey Geese are shot on the marshes of the English 

 Solway at any time, but Story has a bird which he shot near 

 Kirkbride in the winter 1888-89. This is a Pink-footed Goose, 

 as was a local bird which I bought for Mr. Tandy in November 

 1889. Mr. W. Nicol has met with a few of these Geese near 

 Silloth, and he tells me that when feeding they generally keep 



