Islands. The first recorded occurrence appears to be that of
the bird obtained by Marmaduke Tun stall, figured by Bewick,
and now preserved in the Museum of Newcastle-on-Tyne.
According to Tunstall’s MS., as quoted by Mr. G. T. Fox
(Synops. Newcastle Mus.) “ it was shot in the severe frost
in the beginning of the year 1776, near London.” He continues
:—“ Never heard, I think, but of two more seen in
England. One was taken alive in this neighbourhood
[Wycliffe, in the north of Yorkshire], and is still living. It
is kept in a pond with some ducks of the wild breed, with
which it is very sociable, but never produced any breed
together, although there is one it particularly associates with,
and seems to be partial to. It is very tame and familiar.”
Latham adds that this bird lived until 1785, when it lost its
life by an accident. One killed near Berwick-upon-Tweed in
1818 formed part of Mr. Bullock’s celebrated collection ; and
having been purchased by Leach for .£27, is now preserved
in the British Museum. The authors of the Catalogue of
Norfolk and Suffolk Birds make the bare statement that the
late Mr. Lilly Wigg bought a specimen of this rare Goose
which was killed at Halvergate in Norfolk, in the year 1805,
and proceeded to eat it, remarking that its flesh was well-
flavoured ! One or more specimens are stated by Stephens to
have been killed in Cambridgeshire during the severe winter of
1813. Dr. Edward Moore, in his Catalogue of the Birds of
Devonshire, has recorded two instances of this Goose having
been obtained in that county; one of them shot on Kenton
Warren in 1828, in the possession of Mr. W. Bussell, at
Dawlisli; the second killed on Teign marshes, February 1st,
1837, by Bendell of Buckland, and was prepared and preserved
by Mr. Drew. In Durham it has been stated by Mr.
Hogg that two were seen on the Tees, and one shot in Cowpen
Marsh about 1845 (Zool. p. 1178), but Mr. J. H. Gurney,
jun., is sceptical on this point. A fine example now in the
collection of Mr. John Marshall of Taunton, was killed at
Maldon in Essex on the 6th of January, 1871 (Zool. s.s.
p. 2513). In Lancashire, two are recorded as having
been obtained, but not preserved, near Garstang in 1872
(Zool. s.s. p. 3236). In Scotland, in addition to the Berwickshire
one already mentioned, a specimen is stated by Mr.
R. Gray to have been killed in the county of Caithness,
and to be still preserved in the collection formerly belonging
to the late Mr. Sinclair of Wick ; and Macgillivray received
information that one had been seen on the loch of
Strathbeg, some years prior to 1852. As regards Ireland,
Thompson states that he was informed by a person to whom
the species was well known, that about the year 1828 he
had seen a specimen in the shop of Mr. Glennon, to Avhom
the bird had been sent in a fresh state to be preserved. It
may be noted for what it is worth, that in the sale-catalogue
of the collection of the late Dr. Martin Barry, one of the lots
is a “ Bed-breasted Goose, shot at Kilkerrin Bay, Galway,
in 1828.”
The Bed-breasted Goose is only a rare straggler to Sweden,
Denmark, and Northern Germany, but it has more fiequently,
at long intervals, been met with in Holland ; the last time
so recently as the 18tli of February, 1881.* Five or six examples
have been obtained in France, and two or three in
Italy. In Bussia it is said to visit Archangel in spring, and
to have occurred near Moscow ; passes through the central
provinces in small numbers ; is not uncommon on migration
near Astrachan ; and in winter it visits the southern
shores of the Caspian, especially the Persian territory, in
considerable numbers. Ménétries relates, in his ‘ Catalogue
raisonné des objets de zoologie recueillis dans un Voyage
au Caucase, &c,’ that in 1828 a large flock of this species
appeared at Lenkoran, probably driven there by strong winds ;
they were so exhausted by fatigue that they were caught by
hand, and many were still preserved in captivity, to which
they were easily reconciled. They always kept togethei, and
* J. H. Gurney, jun., in ‘ The Ibis,’ 1881, p. 495. The bird was shot, when
in company with a lot of Bernacle Geese, by Messrs. W. B. Monement and
G, Cresswell, and the description given by the former is worth quoting, in order
to show how a very rare bird may be obtained by the merest accident ‘ We
found the Geese in a long line and thin, so let them swim on in order to rake
them ; but they would not have it, and rose. We stopped twenty-five Bernacle ;
got twenty-three and the Red-breasted Goose.