ANATIDE. 465 
position, especially if tempted by a field of young 
barley or wheat just sprouting, of which it seems 
especially fond. 
In a wild state the food of the Brent Goose ap- 
pears to consist almost entirely of marine vegetables. 
Yarrell says he has “repeatedly found the stomach 
full of the leaves and stems of a species of grass 
that grows abundantly in the shallow pools left by 
the tide, and with the fronds of different Alge, par- 
ticularly of one which seems to be the Laver.” 
Meyer adds to the list of food the insects that are 
found on the sea-weed that has been washed up and 
left by the tide. It breeds in very high northern 
latitudes, and but very little seems to be known of 
its nest or its habits during the breeding season. 
The Brent Goose is perhaps more elegantly 
shaped than the Bernicle, but it is by no means so 
strikingly or prettily coloured. The beak is black ; 
the irides very dark brown; the head, neck all 
round and breast are black, except a small band of 
white which nearly surrounds the neck about half 
way down; the feathers of the back and scapulars 
are dark greyish brown, tipped with dirty brownish 
white; lesser wing-coverts the same; the greater 
wing-coverts the same, but tipped with a purer 
white; rump black; upper tail-coverts white; tail- 
feathers black; quilis black; lower part of the 
breast, belly and flanks pale greyish brown, darker 
on the thighs and immediately above them; vent, 
