BRENT GOOSE. 77 



Geese, and a few may be seen in almost every poulterer''s shop 

 in the winter. The authors of the Catalogue of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk Birds mention, that the cry of a flock of these birds 

 much resembles the noise of a pack of hounds, and they had 

 twice been deceived by it. 



Upon the Northumbrian coast, Mr. Selby observes, " a 

 very large body of these birds annually resorts to the exten- 

 sive muddy and sandy flats that lie between the mainland and 

 Holy Island, and which are covered by every flow of the tide. 

 This part of the coast appears to have been a favourite resort 

 of these birds from time immemorial, where they have always 

 received the name of Ware Geese, given to them, without 

 doubt, in consequence of their food consisting entirely of ma- 

 rine vegetables. This I have frequently verified by dis- 

 section ; finding the gizzard filled with the leaves and stems 

 of a species of grass that grows abundantly in the shallow 

 pools left by the tide, and with the remains of the fronds of 

 different algfe, particularly of one, which seems to be the 

 Laver (Ulva latissima). In this haunt they remain till the 

 end of February, when they migrate in successive flocks, as 

 the individuals happen to be influenced by the season, and 

 before April the whole have disappeared. When they de- 

 part, the same procedure as that mentioned by Wilson, in 

 his American Ornithology, takes place ; the flock about to 

 migrate rises high into the air by an extensive spiral course, 

 and then moves off* seaward in a northerly direction." 



This species is included by Mr. Macgillivray among the 

 Birds of the Hebrides, and in Shetland it is called Horra 

 Goose, from the numbers that frequent Horra Sound, but 

 none remain during summer. Mr. Dann's note on this spe- 

 cies is as follows. " I could get no information respecting 

 the Brent Goose in Lapland, it being unknown to the colo- 

 nists and Laps. I have seen and shot them in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Gottenburgh in the autumn, but they are not 



