A Prospering Goose Experiences in Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire suggest
that we may now claim an extra big bird as a national- ized Briton. The Canada goose has firmly established itself; especially within the pale of our big country 'houses. They breed freely and flourish. Among their attractions are a habit of making local migrations of great punctuality. They fly across from Hoo to End or from Spit to Marsh at precise hours of the morning and evening ; and advertise their pas- sage by a clamour that is quite a new noise in our country air. They rattle overhead like mechanical transport. You can hear them (as Oliver Goldsmith wrote optimistically of croaking frogs) a good half-mile ; and take your glasses out to count them. In one district of Norfolk their company has diminished of late and it is to be feared that the errant gun-man (he may be so called) is guilty. In that rich county of birds they make a pleasing contrast with the pink-footed goose, which is the species that has been characteristic of the district since the days of " the last of the English." w. THomAs.
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