BEAN GOOSE. 12s 
also in the Hebrides, in the Islands of Harris and Lewis; and 
no doubt in many other parts. A few are said to have nests 
every year about Tunbiggin Tarn, near Orton, in Westmoreland ; 
others in Cumberland. 
The species is also common in Wales and in Ireland, as a 
winter visitant. In Orkney, it has been observed occasionally 
during the early part of the winter, but its visits are very 
uncertain. 
In September and October they wend their way southwards. 
The Bean Goose has been kept on the ornamental water in 
St. James’ Park, London, and has hatched its young there. 
It is very readily tamed if the eggs are procured, and young 
birds thus obtained for early domestication. The like indeed 
is the case with older birds. One was obtained by Mr. George 
Johnson, of Melton Ross, Lincolnshire, in 1851, of which, 
though an old bird and procured with the gun, he wrote me 
word, ‘he is at this time so tame that he will eat out of my 
hand, and come any time at call, and is in every way more 
domesticated than our common Geese.’ 
They are naturally very shy and watchful, so as oniy to be 
approachable by stratagem. ‘The well-known saying, ‘A Wild 
Goose chase,’ like most or all proverbial expressions, conveys 
the result of wide-spread experience. These birds are friendly 
and sociable among themselves. In the tame state they soon 
come to associate and consort with the common Geese: they 
are said to attain a great age. 
These Wild Geese, when there are only a few together, 
fly in a straight line one after the other, but when numbers 
increase its length, it diverges into two in the form of a 
wedge, some old Gander, the patriarch of the flock, leading 
the van. When on their migration they keep aloft, but at 
‘other times nearer to the ground, especially if the wind be 
high, or the weather thick and misty. They fly, as has 
oe ascertained, at the rate of from forty to fifty miles an 
hour. 
They arrive at their feeding grounds with great regularity, 
at the early dawn of the morning, and remain till towards 
dusk in the evening, when, as before mentioned, they wing 
their way in long strings to the sea, or the sand banks of 
estuaries and rivers, their loud gabble calling attention to 
them overhead as they go. In such places, out of the reach 
of danger, they rest in security. They do much mischief in 
clover fields, which crop they seem very much addicted to. 
