THE GREY LAG GOOSE. 
31 
when the former gentleman and Mr. Selby visited that county and 
ascertained that the bean goose breeds at several of the lakes. 
But Mr. St. John, in his Tour in the same county, at a subse- 
quent period, assures us that the grey lag goose breeds at Lochs 
Maddie, Laighal, Urigil, &c., and arrives a month earlier for that 
purpose than the bean goose. He states that, to make sure of the 
species, he shot some of the old birds (vol. i. pp. 35, 139, &c.). 
The grey lag has generally, until of late years, been considered 
the original of the domestic goose, but this is now doubted by 
some authors. On comparing wild and domestic birds, I have 
been unable to perceive any difference worthy of note, except 
the superior size of the latter, and this may, I conceive, be fairly 
attributable to domestication. The form of their bills is similar, 
and differs from that of the bean and white-fronted species. 
There is considerable variety, however, in domestic geese, not only 
as to size, but colour of the bill, legs, &c.* 
Although numerous instances of the affection of the tame 
goose have been recorded — in Daniel's f Bural Sports/ Stanley's 
‘Familiar History of Birds,’ &c. — one or two more may be added. 
In November 1841, a lady of my acquaintance mentioned the 
following circumstance which had just been witnessed by herself. 
In the summer of 1840, a goose was brought up at the same time 
with a couple of ducks at a house situated very near the sea, in 
the vicinity of Port Ballantrae. The goose and ducks associated 
together, and, on the latter being killed for the table, the goose 
made known its affliction by going about screeching most violently 
for some days, and visiting every spot that it had been in the habit 
of frequenting with them ; — it wholly refused food the first day 
after their death. 
Mr. G. C. Hyndman has often heard his father mention a 
gander which he saw at Belmont, county of Tyrone, that formed 
an attachment to an old blind mare, a favourite charger, retired 
like her master from the wars. Every morning the mare was 
let out of the stable to take a drink, and the gander preceded her 
* See note on the Grey Lag , at the conclusion of the White-fronted Goose , p. 44. 
