ee

 

 

 

in each, a very exciting dative might

acing a good gun
vats and placing a g g wee qi
Akio th varying success ; but oftener than once

collecting a number of
d out for many seasons WI

. “ = . So
in a day, and bad in doing s¢

¥ 53 y : , y . » a§ » ll
we have bagged from fifty to sixty Geese

struck us that by

be organized. ‘This we have now carrie an amount of hard shooting and

) | wtos Ss tl ID st al ybitious.
| ling sall fy i l 1 ; | ;
sé | . 0 J | . | 5 er t > t t . tl ; ) rt ‘ tl e tl » y o l |

A yout the 2 h of July IS the prop l tine o mee Or iM S] 9 OF yen 1e young a Ss, lth uoh

strong > WINE 5
early the size of the old Geese, are not strong on the oe
near siz

indeed, after they are able to take long flights,
there is little to be done in the way of shooting them.
>
i alf zen ‘good men and true
“Imagine, then, half a dozen ‘ g¢ ' eats
few days beforehand, armed with all calibres, from S.,
Rods, reels, boots, and baskets lumber the lobby in
S»

convening at the comfortable inn of Achintoul, within
= . .

with his mighty 8-bore
six miles of the lochs, a

breech-loader, down to the Major’s sharp-shooting 16.

1 srous detache ths until a dead
‘ i ‘-s are that we are fish the numerous detached lochs
for the standing orders are that we are to fis

sweet confusion 3 .
properly carrying out the chasse.

calm day should permit of our a. ; a
, lochs have driven down the Geese, and concentrated them on the lowest and

« The keepers on the upper 2 :
ange water ; ae ‘Donald’ reports that ‘ there is an aya lot of them.’ co a a
hot toddy we turn in early to bed, and are cruelly roused out of glorious ee at q ~~ " a a
Liinokles‘on the door. Up we jump, and take an anxious look at it ponzans All sous a o en
Griam has thrown off his foggy mantle, showing the clear outline of his bald bey against the blue sky—
always an omen of settled weather. Bitters (that horrid Celtic habit, which Saxons laugh at but oom ‘
kindly fall into), followed by breakfast, are soon despatched. Guns, ammunition, au lunch have been packec
ina cart, and under careful hands are jolting their way to the lochs over a track which does the double duty
of a road in summer and a water-course in winter!

«Every glass is out to scan the water, and Geese are counted by the hundred ; so, making sure that the
shore and outlets are all properly guarded, we embark, a gun in each boat, and form line, with a proper
distance intervening, and the lightest boats on the flanks and a little in advance, so as to head the Geese
should they attempt to break. Thus we pull gently down the loch until we get so near the Geese that the
boats can safely close upon them. The birds get very restless, and bead up and down in long strings; but
the flanking boats stop them, and we are within range. The daftue is soon opened by some of the old birds,
after a premonitory screech to show they have made up their minds, taking wing across the line of boats.
Bang ! bang ! bang ! and down comes an old gander, with a flop sufficient to sink the little dingy underneath ;
and ‘ first blood to the oily gunner!’ comes cheerily across the water ; every boat opens fire, fast and furious,
and the plucky owner of No. 8 bore, careless of recoil, cuts down lanes of Geese, and deafens his assistant
loader, who after each discharge feels if his head is on and puts in a fresh cartridge. All order is now at an
end; the birds separate into small lots over the loch, and each boat cuts out an independent course.”

“Note of two Irish Grey Lag Geese received from Lord Enniskillen, December 15th, 1868.—One, a male,
weighed ten pounds; the other, a female, seven pounds and a half. The male had the head and neck light
chocolate-brown ; back of the neck and back chocolate-brown, each feather margined at the tip with brownish
grey; lower part of the back grey: scapularies very dark chocolate-brown, each feather narrowly edged with
greyish white ; shoulders, lesser wing-coverts and those of the greater coverts nearest the spurious wing, and
the spurious wing itself light pure grey, each feather margined with. still paler grey; three upper rows of
the greater wing-coverts brown, tipped with greyish white, the lower and largest row conspicuously margined
anteriorly and at the tip with greyish white ; primaries and secondaries dark chocolate, with white shate

tail-coverts white, forming a zone; external tail-feathers white,
the central ones dark chocolate in the middle, the rest white ;

and the first four washed with grey ; upper

abdomen pale brownish white, with here and
there small patches of black at the extremities of the feathers ; vent and under tail-coverts white ;_ bill very
which is defended with a |;
; feet light pinkish flesh-colour,

“The female resembles the male

deeply tinged with pink towards the tip,

ges irge greyish white nail; irides hazel,
surrounded with a thick pink lash

In colour, but is destitute of the bl

ack markings on the chest, and the
grey of the rump is not a: she ic ; : ‘ S ;
sre} 1] Ot SO pure 5 she Is also conspicuously less in size ”
Mr. Dresser found the Grev J; : : : :
4 . A fc sae » Hhree wee j i 7 z

trey Lag Goose breeding all along the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia up to Tornea,

rn towns the peasant women make a
at prices varying from 20 kopecks upwards.
ame geese in some towns.”
atching the time the ol

and procured the eggs at the end of May.

| “In some of the northe
trade of catching the young

birds and selling them in the market
and quite take the place of t
how she obtained them :

They are easily reared

ies ia He asked ‘ one old woman

she replied, by w FEES 1

and proceed to the water ( : : : geese leave the nest in the evening

their nests far from the shores) ;

. e % 2

almost lnvariably met the old
! atching the latter.”

The principal figure in the accom

as they always have
Be a hs ial li \ and by keeping in the vicinity
y evening during the hatching-season, she ! :

water, and had no difficulty in ¢ birds leading the young to the

panying Plate is a inale

, about two thirds the natural size.