ANSERES. ( 91 ) AN ATI DM. 



THE BRENT GOOSE. 



THE BLACK-FACED BERNICLE GOOSE, BRAND GOOSE, BLACK- 

 HEADED BARNACLE, RING - NECKED BARNACLE, CLATTER 

 GOOSE, HORRA GOOSE, WARE GOOSE, BLACK GOOSE. 



Bernicla hrenta. 

 dfllilti (150000* 



From thefroze7i North, where Winter s hand. 

 With sway despotic and untam'd, locks up 

 The shrinking world ; o'er the wide ocean borne 

 On vi^rous wing, pour forth the feather d tribes 

 Diverse attd strange. 



Rev. John Vincent, Fowling. 



The Brent Goose is a winter visitor, and is the smallest of 

 the various species of Wild Geese which are found on our 

 shores. It is occasionally seen off the coast of Berwickshire 

 during the winter months, but it seldom visits the interior 

 of the county, the only instance of its occurrence in the 

 Merse with which I am acquainted being that of an imma- 

 ture specimen in the possession of Mr. Allan of Peelwalls, 

 which was shot on Billie Mains Mill Pond about thirty 

 years ago. Immense flocks frequent Fenham Flats, near 

 Holy Island, in Northumberland, from autumn until spring, 

 where numbers are frequently killed, as they are excellent 

 birds for the table. 



This species feeds chiefly upon marine plants^ and 

 insects. 



1 Mr. Andrew Brotlierston, bird-stuffer, Kelso, records that in the early part of 

 February 1879 he had two Brent Geese sent to him for preservation, and their 

 stomachs were filled mth grass-wrack {Zostera marina). He adds that they had 

 probably been feeding on the slakes between Fenham and Holy Island, where this 

 plant occurs in great abundance, and where so many Brents were killed at the time 

 above mentioned that they were selling at one shilling each. — Ilist, Ber. Nat. Club, 

 vol. viii. p. 537. 



