BERNICLE GOOSE. 73 



very soon become as familiar as our domestic geese, and have 

 lived a very long time in confinement, in one instance as 

 much as thirty-two years. In a communication to the Zoolo- 

 gical Society, from the Earl of Derby, the President, dated 

 Prescot, in May 1840, it was stated that on the " Great 

 Water of his lordship"'s park, a Bernicle Goose paired Avith, 

 and constantly accompanied a Canada Goose, but there was 

 no produce ; this happened last season. In the present one 

 the same Bernicle Goose has paired with a White-fronted 

 Goose, and the pair have a nest Avith nine or ten eggs. It 

 is not known, in either case, which was the goose and which 

 the gander." A small flock of Bernicles, consisting of one 

 gander and four geese, have been kept for several seasons on 

 the canal in St. James"'s Park by the Ornithological Society, 

 but no young ones have been produced. This species is a 

 regular winter visiter to Ireland, and has been taken there in 

 the north, north-east, at Dublin, and in the south. Mr. Sel- 

 by says it is sometimes abundant on the Lancashire coast, 

 and in the Solway Firth. It has occasionally been taken in 

 Wales, in Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Sussex, Cam- 

 bridgeshire, Norfolk, and in Northumberland. They are 

 observed to frequent marshes on the coast, where they feed 

 on the grasses, and the tender parts of aquatic plants. The 

 flesh is of good flavour, and the birds are not uncommon in 

 the shops of our London poulterers, from November to Feb- 

 ruary, about which time they take their departure for more 

 northern latitudes, in which they produce their young. Their 

 nesting habits are little known ; but an egg brought home by 

 our northern voyagers is of a greenish-white ; three inches 

 long, by one inch and eleven lines in breadth. Mr. Dann''s 

 note in reference to this species, says, " A skin of this Goose 

 was shown me by some Laps near Gillivara, who were igno- 

 rant of the bird, never having seen it before. It was shot at 

 Killingsuvanda. It migrates in vast numbers along the west- 



