224 



BIRDS. 



the last-mentioned species, one may run through many older accounts 

 and almost invariably find that the Pink-footed, except when handled, 

 was mistaken for the Bean. I only discovered the fact myself quite 

 suddenly. Upon our Stirlingshire coast (Forth), about the year 

 1875, or thereby, I shot two Geese right and left as they passed 

 over my head, they having separated from a very large gaggle.'' I 

 was partly concealed in a Carse ditch, up to my knees in mud and 

 water, when they came over. I killed the first one stone dead with 

 No. 5 shot, and the second plunged into the mud of the foreshore. 

 I was so excited because I thought I had got such a rare bird as 

 a Fink-footed Goose, that leaving the dead one I plunged into the mud- 

 flat and came the inevitable "cropper" fiat on my face. I got my 

 second Goose, however, but I have ever since known better the 

 difference between the Bean and the Pink-foot. Both of those I 

 shot were of the latter species. At the farm I got scraped down, 

 and the good peo^^le there did their best to make me presentable ; 

 but I very much doubt if they did, if I might judge by the 

 remarks of other Hnd critics whom I met before I reached the 

 shelter of my own house at home. 



Great disparities in weights occur among individuals of the 

 different species inter se ; and I feel quite convinced that these dis- 

 parities are excellent indications of ages of the birds, as I have found 

 a series of weights accorded well with the immature and adult 

 plumages, as I think I once pointed out with regard to specimens 

 I examined of other species in, I think, the Field newspaper. (See 

 under White-fronted Goose.) 



Pink- footed Geese frequent Loch Leven regularly, and in con- 

 siderable numbers, and Grey Lag Geese also in smaller quantities. 

 But they are all of more or less rarity at Eden Mouth. 



Millais also designates the Pink-footed Goose as "the most 

 abundant species on the east coast of Scotland." He says: "I 

 have seen big flocks both in the Carse of Gowrie and coming in 

 from the sea over Tents Muir. These last-named feed in the open 

 fields near Tayport. (For accounts of Pink-foots arriving and feeding 

 formations, see my JVildfowler in Scotland.) " 



Mr. W. A. Brown found that the lightest and smallest weighed 

 only 4 J lbs., and the heaviest and largest weighed as much as 8 J lbs. 

 This was in the same season of 1872-3, when he secured a consider- 

 able bag of Geese on the Tay and Eden estuaries. 



It is not necessary to speak fully of occurrences near the coast, 

 but I may mention that Mr. D. Dewar only once obtained a specimen 



