134: BERNICLE GOOSE. 
it please them to repair to me, and I shall satisfie them by 
the testimonie of good witnesses.’ 
They fly in a strong and powerful manner, the pairs or 
families keeping together and forming a line. In alighting 
a considerable noise is produced by the wings. 
Their food consists of the leaves and roots of maritime 
plants, as well as at times of the blades of growing corn, 
rye, and grasses, as also of insects and their larve, for which 
they seek with the head and neck below water. 
These birds appear to breed in large swamps and morasses. 
The eggs are of a greenish white colour. 
Male; weight, between four and five pounds; length, two 
feet. one inch; bill, very small and black; from its base a 
broad black patch or line extends to the eye; iris, dark brown; 
forehead, and head on the sides, white; crown, neck ail round, 
and nape, glossy black. Chin and throat, white; breast, on 
the upper part, glossy black, the remainder greyish white, 
ending in silvery white, with light greyish bars on the sides; 
the feathers on the legs black, with pale tips; back, fine bluish 
grey, with black or brownish black and white bars, the latter 
colour gradually widened, giving it an elegant dappled appear- 
ance; below, the back is black, on the lower part, bluish black. 
The wings have the first quill feather the longest. Greater 
and lesser wing coverts, fine bluish grey, each feather edged 
with white, .inside which at the tip is a crescent of bluish 
black. Primaries, almost black, edged a little way from the 
tips with bluish grey, at the base light grey on the outer 
webs; tertiaries, grey, with white edges, and a crescent of 
bluish black at the tip, inside the white margin. The tail, 
which consists of fourteen feathers, is nearly black, the feathers 
are almost of a length, so that it is nearly square at the 
end; upper tail coverts, white, in a erescent shape; under 
tail coverts, silvery white. The legs, which are short and 
thick, are, as the toes, claws, and webs, black. 
The female is like the male. 
The young have the forehead spotted with black, the white 
on the sides of the head interspersed with black feathers: the 
streak between the bill and the eye much wider than in the 
old birds; the grey marks on the sides of the breast darker, 
and the white not so clear. The back darker, with a tinge 
of red on the tips of the feathers; the wing coverts similarly 
marked; the legs not so dark as in the old bird, being tinged 
with reddish brown. 
