Ps therly direction. When feeding, which they do at the ebb a the tide, or mona
ee cant - they keep up a continual hoarse cackling, or, as it is termed, honking
from one place sccaamigeits ih me Be and bas not unaptly been compared, when so heard,
sie eG A : aa ; They a at all times extremely watchful, and can only be approached

; ‘Ty c ac O 10 S. 4 :) as
set iy a sis person of the shooter being concealed. ie Is a a a a
arts of the kinedom, by means of a flat-bottomed boat, $0 built as to draw very little water,
a whose ans barely rises above the surface, armed with a large fowling-piece that traverses
an Ss L “ < ,
the half-deck upon a swivel. In this boat the fowler ale
comes within range of the flock, when he fires eithet

this way, not only amongst the Brent Geese

lies flat, and directs its motion by a paddle or
il i as they float upon the water
sma oar, tl 1e
; Great havoc is sometimes made in , } .
but amongst Widgeon and other kinds of wild-fowl, as es learn from Colonel Hawker’s an
treatise, to which I refer my readers, and where they will find every direction necessary for this
Upon Holy Island sandy flats, where the above method was introduced

or just as they rise.

particular kind of sporting. .
about 1829, by a man from the Norfolk coast, I am credibly te ‘

ci » discharge during the season of 1831. reviously to this mode
Geese were killed and secured at one discharge during the season 8 1

informed that about twenty-two Brent

of shooting being adopted, all the Brent Geese and different species of pues upon our northern
coast were killed by moonlight, by fowlers placing themselves in various parts of the lake and patiently
waiting for the approach of the wild fowl as they flew about in quest of feeding-places. Their polar
or sitninter migration is directed to very high latitudes, where they breed and rear their young in
quiet security. The nest is formed of vegetable materials, in the swamps of those desolate regions ;
and they lay ten or twelve white eggs. . . . When captured alive, this Goose may soon be rendered

s

very tame (as I have found from experience), and, being a bird of handsome figure and light
carriage, is a considerable acquisition on large pieces of water. No steady attempts, however, appear
to have been yet made to increase the breed in a domestic state, though, as an article of food, it
is superior to most of the Anatide, and equally valuable in the quality of its feathers and down.
When tame, it eats readily all kinds of grain, as well as grass and other vegetable diet.”

Mr. Thompson, who states that it is abundant in Ireland, occurring on both sides of the island,
wherever there is plenty of its favourite Zostera marina, gives a very long account of its habits, as
observed in Belfast Bay (vide ‘Natural History of Ireland,’ vol. iii. p. 54). He says, ‘ they generally
arrive there by the first week of September, and sometimes remain until May. Strictly marine, they
fly to the deep water in the afternoon, and remain there during the night, and at sunrise return to
their feeding-grounds, generally proceeding in small flocks, and alighting altogether about the same
place. They are very wary, and avoid in their flight any objects with which they are not familiar.
They swim quickly, do not often dive, and usually remain but a short time under water.”

It would seem that the food of this bird varies according to circumstances: thus on the coast of
Northumberland it appears to feed on Ula latissima, in Ireland and Scotland on Zostera marina, in
Hudson’s Bay on Ulea lactuca; and in America, according to Wilson, it also partakes of ‘small
shell-fish.”

Two eggs, from Parry’s second Expedition, presented to Professor Jameson by Mr. Fisher, are thus
described by Macgillivray:— One is two inches and a half in length by an inch and five and a_ half
eighths; the other, two inches and five eighths by an inch and six and a half eighths. They are of
a nearly elliptical form, the broadest part being almost central, and one end a little larger than the
other; the colour of one asparagus-green or pale greyish green, of the other paler and approaching
Mr. Hewitson, on the other hand, Says, “‘the eggs of this species differ from
those of the other Geese in being slightly tinted with

,

to apple-green,’

_ the a faint brownish colouring, whilst they are all,
when quite fresh, either pure white or slightly tinted with cream-colour.”
Some slight variation occurs j echdlonvihe of ait indivi i

ght ccurs in the colouring of different individuals ; but this, I think, is due to
ige, and I believe that both sexes are

existence.

alike in outward appearance at the same period of their
I cannot close this memoir of the Brent Goose without

ae ; : recording my obligations to the Earl of
Enniskillen for roin decline
“aniskillen for his kindness jr

ena in sending mea fine pair of these birds from Ireland, for the furtherance
of this work, and that | might have an Opportunity of
which I found juicy and excellent. The :
quarter,

testing the quality of their flesh as a viand,
average weight of the two birds was three pounds and a

The Figures are about three-fourths of the natural size