222 



BIRDS. 



Three were shot near Xewburgh-on-Tay on 18th October 1885 

 (auct. Mr, W. Evans, and that gentleman saw them, as well as sixteen 

 others in a flock, upon an island out from Xewburgh). The latter 

 were seen on the 26th December 1886, and Mr. Evans remarks upon 

 the difference of the cries of this species and of the Pink-footed Goose. 



All the Grey Geese frequent Loch Leven (Forth), more or less, 

 but I am not aware that the Bean and Grey Lag are often found at 

 other resorts in Tay. 



Having asked Millais for his experiences of this species as a 

 frequenter of Tay, he informs me that he found it "abundant in 

 winter in the Firth of Tay and on the Carse of Gowrie between 

 Glencarse and Inchture ; and I have killed a few there." He then 

 refers me to his volume on Wildfowler in Scotland for a story of a 

 white Grey Lag. 



Numbers of Grey Geese frequent Montrose Basin. 



It is a common custom to decoy Grey Lag Geese by setting up 

 boards formed in the shape of geese, and painted, or even more elabo- 

 rately planned dummies, in certain j^astures frequented by the birds. 

 The necks of these decoy-boards are often formed with a hinge, thus 

 making them movable. Li this past season (1905) I heard of no 

 fewer than sixteen having been shot in one week on an estate near 

 Dundee, allured by these decoys. Grey Lag Geese come freely to 

 these decoys, but Pink-footed and most other Grey Geese shy them 

 when within some seventy or eighty yards, whether by sense of sight 

 or scent (absence of it?), or both combined, is a question. Mr. W. 

 Berry writes me some account of the process. He speaks of the 

 Grey Lag Geese as " utterly unsophisticated as compared with the 

 Pink-foots." He goes on to say: "The decoys were beautifully 

 painted, and looked splendid in the grey dawn. The flocks came to 

 them like "Wood-Pigeons, and approached to within about eighty 

 yards. Then they took a turn necessary to enable them to alight 

 -s^dth their heads in the same direction ; and lo ! the * lean kine of 

 Pharaoh ' were not in it ; for scarcely, with these hungry ones, did 

 the Kingdom of Fife seem big enough for these Geese afterwards 

 They went off, every throat distended with yells." Mr. Berry 

 believes nothing can be more effective than these decoys if it be 

 desired to banish Pink-foots utterly. Further, he believes that the 

 unusual numbers of Pink-foots seen on the south side of the Tay 

 estuary in the autumn of 1905 is greatly due to the use of the said 

 decoys at other places further north. The almost ridiculous tameness 

 of the Grey Lags he has likewise witnessed — much more like tame 



