188 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



THE GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE OF THE 

 BRENT GOOSE. 



THE Brent Goose is essentially a winter visitant ; 

 and as we find the Bernicle species abundant 

 on the western sides of our islands, so do we 

 find the present species most numerous on the eastern 

 coasts. On the north-eastern shores of England, where 

 one gets opportunities of seeing them, they might be 

 considered as entirely maritime, not being known to leave 

 the water mark, or ever to feed on the pastures or young 

 grain. During ebb-tide, they feed on the banks of 

 Zostera Marina, then uncovered ; and an old authoritative 

 writer, Mr. Selby, mentions the ulva latissima as very 

 frequently found in their stomachs ; at other times they 

 rest on the sand-banks, which are quite open, and afford 

 no shelter for approach ; or they ride, as it were, just off 

 the land, buoyant upon the wave, and occasionally pluck 

 the sea-grass or weeds, which are yet borne up within 

 their reach. During the feeding time, or when resting, 

 as has been mentioned in the foregoing, they are clam- 

 orous, and a flock is heard at a considerable distance 

 from the regularity of the call of all the members, which 

 is simultaneously kept up. They are also extremely 

 wary, and it is next to impossible to approach them 

 openly ; and according to the accounts of expert sports- 

 men, shots are best obtained, either at night by lying in 

 wait in the line of flight, or by coasting in a punt on a 

 day, when the wind is favourable, when they may either 

 be ' ' run into," or watched for in the range of flight. 

 In Ireland this goose is also abundant, and furnishes 

 most of the night shooting, which is much followed on 

 various parts of the coast. 



The geographical range of the brent is northward ; 

 we have it in Shetland, and in Northern Europe, Iceland, 

 Hudson Bay, Greenland, and Nova Zembla. In some 

 of these northern latitudes it breeds, but the identical 



