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THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
Order ANSERES.
Family ANATIDAE.
Grey Lag Goose : Anser cinereus. Locally " Grey Goose."
A winter visitor, most often seen during severe weather.
Mr. Parsons says (S) " The winter of 1822-23 was very severe. There were a
great many Geese over and some Swans, but very few Wigeon. Eight Grey
Geese stopped in the Great Mead at the Hall [Shoebury], and my father shot one
of them." Edward Doubleday wrote in 1835 (15) that it had been killed at Har-
low. Mr. Clarke says (24) it is " occasionally [met with] in hard winters " round
Saffron Walden. In 1880, an authority on the Essex coast wrote :—
" The Grey Geese were seen on Saturday, Feb. 21st; from 600 to 1,000 flying
in a triangular form in a N.E. direction. I have repeatedly seen them sometimes
passing for whole days and have always noticed that we never had any winter to
speak of afterwards. They fly generally about a mile high. We very seldom see
them going south—I suppose because the days are shorter, or possibly some may
go another way ; but they generally go north about this time of the year. I used
to try to shoot them with a rifle to see what sort of Geese they were " (42. 30).
Mr. Hope observes that it passes over in the autumn and spring in vast flocks,
going south-west and north-east. When the Geese fly north in the spring, there
is seldom any more cold weather. Round Harwich, " some are seen every winter "
(Kerry).
This species—the only one that is resident and breeds in Britain—is com-
monly supposed to be the chief source from which our domestic goose has
sprung, and the following may, therefore, be appropriately inserted here.
Daniel says (6. ii. 466) :
" Vast numbers of Geese are driven annually to London from distant counties
to supply the markets, among them all the superannuated Geese and Ganders
(called Cagmags), which by a long course of plucking prove uncommonly tough
and dry. In 1783, one drove of above 9,000 passed through Chelmsford. Droves
of two or three thousand are common."
In connection with this subject, Daniel elsewhere relates an amusing anecdote
of a race between a flock of Geese and another of Turkeys, both of which must
have passed through Chelmsford. He says (6. ii. p. 409) :
" Lord Orford, in 1740, made a considerable bet with the present Duke of
Queensberry that a drove of Geese would beat an equal number of Turkies in a
race from Norwich to London. The event proved the justness of his lordship's
expectations ; for the Geese kept on the road with a steady pace ; but the Turkies,
as every evening approached, flew to roost in the trees adjoining the road, from
which the drivers found it very difficult to dislodge them. In consequence of
[their not] stopping to sleep, the Geese beat their competitors hollow, arriving at
their destination two days before the Turkies."