and way be i
form the sub
of Enniskillen
Castle Cool, t
Mr. U *: »y,*,-, • ï î ' i - ,rf d :,t. ’A ->< if s after speaking o f the Grey Lag Goose breedi
part« o f thaï eots^try, atttf *:£ viu'tr MtrttVttm m the bleak hills of the outer Hebrides, states that “ it
in North Cist Benheettkt, and Sooth Cist, amd is occupying the breeding-stations early in
HarvU- Brown took a nest o f eggs which were hard sat upon, on 2nd May, 1870 ; but Mr. Elwes,
the L<«>& Island in 1868, saw Hocks of as many as thirty together later in the season. The .
resembles that of a Great Black-backed Gull when found breeding on heath-clad islands, with th
iu bring lined with down and feathers, is generally placed in a tuft o f coarse grass, or among ra
and contains from four to six eggs. When the young are fully Hedged, they keep together in l<u
»orne week--.. and are often seen shifting their quarters from one side of the island to the ou»
During a vani. »:© Lochs Shin and Merkland, as well as several parts o f the Reay Forest, in iH-
1867, I saw Grey Lags and their broods o f young in sufficient numbers to convince me that tb*?
considered a common bird in those parts of the British Island« ; and that it was not U**»
numerous lakes o f the west coast of Sutherland and Koss-shire will be seen from the ft«
a note transmitted to me, after my return to London, by ray excellent and kind friend ÜM
minster :—“ Loch More, September 4. Yon will like to bear about the Grey Lag hm « ', The
the shore o f Loch Merkland fired into a lot o f fourteen, wounding four ; they pursued the*» <« t
procured one, which we ate ; they will try to'get the others.”
I shall close this paper with some extracts from an amusing and, I am sure, very truthful •***■=
mode o f shooting this bird on its native lochs, which appeared it) ‘ Land and Water’ on the 15th
1870, under the title o f “ A Wild-Goose Chase in Sutherland” :—
“ The breeding-places o f the Wild Goose are yearly becoming more circumscribed all over the
even in Sutherland, where, perhaps, they were more numerous than elsewhere, they are now eoa
or two districts, the most fertile being a chain o f lakes, with islands and rushy margins, runs-,
eight in il es across the interior o f the county, fioco Badinloch to Gernsary. Here the Grey
with a few o f the Bean Goose and Pink-tboted Goose (the latter, however, only rarely),
thiuk that the different sorts o f Geese do not mix or *»&&■
;ontrary, form separate communities until disturbed, when
They float and plume themselves here in comparative ***&«*
g-places, eating up and soiling the very finest pasture ?,■- v*«r;
jproach it after them. For many a day, with the caeq#*m