all the cold months of the year. I t is seldom seem on. fresh
water in the interior, unless wounded; hut is truly a marine
species, passing a great portion of the day and night out at
sea, at other times frequenting extensive muddy flats and
sand bars on the sea-shore, which are exposed at every ebb
tide, and the birds make their appearance at these their feeding
places, as soon as, or even a' short time „before the water
leaves the ground exposed, remaining there* if undisturbed^
till the tide flows over the ground again. In such .situations
the immense numbers that frequent certain favourite localities
are quite extraordinary.
The author of Wild Sports in the West of Ireland, says*
“ they come here in immense multitudes; I saw front th e -
window a considerable extent of sand literally black with this
migratory trib e ;” and they are equally numerous on other
parts of the Irish coast.
Colonel Hawker, in his very amusing Instructions to .young
sportsmen, referring to Wild Fowl shooting on the coasts of
Dorsetshire and Hampshire, observes, “ towards November or
December, we have the- Brent (Sreesé, which are-always wild,
unless in very hard weather. In calm Weather the#m geese
have the cunning in general to leave the mud as soon as the
tide flows high enough to bear an enemy ; and then thèyfgtf
off to sea, and feed on the drifting weeds. To kill Brent
Creese by day, get out of sight in a small punt, at low water,
and keep as near as possible to the edge óf the sea. You
will then hear them coming like a pack of hppnds in full cry,
and they will repeatedly pass within fair shot, provided you
are well concealed, and th o weather is windy to make them
fly low. Before you fire at them, spring suddenly up, and
these awkward birds will be in such a fright as to hover together,
and present a mark like a bam door. The Brent Geese,-
when fat, are excellent eating birds.”
The London markets are abundantly supplied with these
Geese, and a few may be seen in almost every poulterer’s shop
in the winter^ The authors ©ffthe Catalogue of Norfolk and
Suffolk Birds mention, that the cry of a flock of these birds
mw^jWmbl;es the noise;,.©fj a pack- of - hounds, and they had
twice «been deceived by it.
»Upon ;th^; Northumbrian coast, Mr. Selby observes* # a
w y . large body' obthese-birds annually resorts to the extensive
muddy* and sandy, flats that lie^between-the-mainland and
Ufjjgi Island, and which are «Ifeow of the tide.
Thi,s part of the, ;c©$st appears to have-beena favourite resort
nfjt^ ^ ^b ird s from time-immemorial, where they have always
received the name of Ware to them, without
dqubt, in( c©n§qqu.e.o.çé iofr.tiieir .food consisting entirely of nja-
rmé^ vegetables. , This I have frequently verified-by dis-
finding,.the gizzard fllfed with the leaves?and;.stems
of a {Speoies-.of ■ .grass that; ,gro^sx abundantly in the shallow
pools,|eft by the tiRde, and with %e remains^of the fronds of
different algse* <particularly-iof^oS^i which.., .seems* to be the
.Laver (,UIva latis^ima'). In this haunt they remain till the
end-of February, when they migrate in* *öuil§s$iïve flocks, as
the^indiyiduals|.happen, to. be influenced by the season, and
before, April the whplp; haueadisappeared. When they depart,,
the same; gjgo^e^rq, as that méntitp^^by Wilsonia in
his American Ornithology,* fakes place ; -the, flack about to:
migrate rises. bighAnto the air by an extensive spiral course,
and then.moves.off s e aw a r d a northerly direction.-? ^
This., species is included Mr. , Maegillivray among the
Birds of the Hebrides, and in Shetland it is called Horra
Goose, from the, number^ that frequent Horra Sound, but
nqne remain dpripg summer. Mr. Dann’s note on this species,
is as follows,. “ I çould get no infomiation respecting
the, ,]E|r,ent Goos,e in bapland^it being unknown to- the colonists
and Laps. I have sepn and shot-them in the neighbourhood
of tGottenburgh in the autumn, but they are not