PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 
211 
geese " — therefore it is difficult to say which of the three 
has been most frequently procured ; but none of them can 
be considered of regular, or common occurrence. 
Gilbert White notes in his Journal, under the date 
March 8th, 1771, the occurrence of "large flocks of wild 
geese," and on March 17th, 1772, "Wild geese appear in a 
vast flock." 
On November 5th, 1783, when staying with his brother 
at Fyfield, he notes that " wild geese appear on the downs 
and Salisbury Plain ; they feed much on the green wheat in 
the winter, and towards the spring damage it much, so that 
the farmers set up figures to scare them away." 
Colonel Hawker in his " Diary under the date 
January 7th, 1834, mentions : — 
" The east end of the village (Longparish) all in excite- 
ment about two wild geese being over in the fields, and how 
Fiddler Blake and Miller Dance (who missed them, a fair 
shot) had driven them away. I rode off* at once with the 
pony and a telescope, and after a very long reconnoitre 
I spied one of these geese about a quarter of a mile off" in 
an open field. After much manoeuvring and crawling (to 
the very earth) like a toad for two gunshots and more, I 
got so near as to give him such a sickener with the first 
barrel that I made him 'haul his wind,' and fall a dead 
bird to the second. In my whole life I never was more 
proud of my shooting generalship than in bringing home 
this said grey goose. 
" N.B. — On seeing Leadbeater in town, who has my 
goose to stuff, he told me that it was a very curious and a 
very valuable species, that he never saw before ; and that 
this bird had completely ' floored ' him in his ornithological 
knowledge, which we all know to be about the best in 
Europe." 
