632 BERNICLA BRENTA. 



the Firth of Tay, and other parts. In those to the south- 

 ward, on both sides of Scotland, they are to be seen during the 

 winter. Very considerable numbers are sent to the Edinburgh 

 market, where they are in some request, their flesh being not 

 unsavoury, and rather tender. 



According to Mr. Selby, " a very large body of these birds 

 annually resorts to the extensive muddy and sandy flats that 

 lie between the mainland and Holy Island, and which are 

 covered by every flow of the tide." He states that they there 

 feed on " the leaves and stems of a species of grass that grows 

 abundantly in the shallow pools left by the tide," and on 

 various algae, remaining until the end of February, when they 

 migrate in successive flocks, the whole disappearing before 

 April. 



It may readily be conceived, that the numbers in the 

 different places of resort may vary according to circumstances. 

 " The late Mr. Boys of Sandwich," says Montagu, " informed 

 us, that in the year 1739-40, when these birds Avere so abundant 

 on the Continent, especially on the coast of Picardy, where 

 the inhabitants were raised en masse in order to destroy them, 

 they were so plentiful on the coast of Kent, that they were 

 in so starving a condition as to suffer themselves to be 

 knocked down with stones and sticks ; and were carried in 

 carts to the neighbouring towns, where a purchaser was 

 allowed to pick and choose for sixpence a-piece. We learn 

 from the same respectable source, that in the year 1803 they 

 were innumerable about Sandwich ; and were so miserably 

 poor and debilitated as not to be able to rise after alighting, 

 and many were taken by hand. ' It is remarkable,' says 

 Mr. Boys, 'not a Bernicle, Grey-Lag Goose, nor Bean Goose, 

 have been seen with this superabundance of Brent Geese, 

 and yet the weather has been sufficiently severe to compel 

 the Hooping Swan so far south.' It is a curious circumstance 

 that such occasional excesses in migration of some particular 

 species should occur so locally. Thus, when the Brent was 

 so plentiful on the eastern coast of the kingdom, not a single 

 instance occurred in the west, to our knowledge ; yet in the 

 year 1800, about Christmas, they were common, contiguous 

 to the coast of South Devon." 



