186 BRENT GOOSE. 
In Ireland it is also common, and some are said to have 
bred there, but it is considered that they may have been 
birds which had been partially tamed and had flown away. 
It arrives in Orkney in the autumn, quitting again the 
following spring. 
This species chiefly affects the sea-shore, but some have 
at different times been met with inland. 
They arrive in large numbers about the beginning of 
October, and others keep constantly joining the first comers 
till the beginning of November. They begin to leave again 
by the end of February or beginning of March, and before 
April all have gone. 
They are excellent eating, and are very easily kept in a 
domesticated state. They collect in immense flocks, so as 
often even to blacken the surface of the ground. In their 
wild state they appear not to be shy of human approach, 
probably as being unaccustomed to danger from that quarter 
in the distant parts of the world to which they naturally 
belong. Here, however, like so many other birds, which if 
not disturbed and harassed, would retain their natural character, 
they soon become extremely wary. Like the fortresses in the 
Baltic, they are only to be approached in the day-time, when 
on the water, by a low gun-boat, the invention of Colonel 
Hawker, previously to the adoption of which mode, they 
used: to afford many ‘Nights Entertammments’ to the cautious 
fowlers of a less inventive age. They thrive well in con- 
finement, and I have seen them on a lawn happy and contented; 
they have been known, as stated by Audubon and others, 
to produce young while thus kept. 
They rise high into the air in circular courses before 
departing on their migration, and then move off over the 
sea. The can dive easily.if desirous to do so, but such is 
not their ordinary habit. 
They feed on marine vegetables, wrack, and grasses, and 
occasionally on small shell-fish; some sand is also swallowed. 
Meyer says of the note, ‘Its description is varied, sounding 
like the. different expressions, cuang, rott, and crock, all 
expressed in a hurried and harsh manner.’ The clamour of 
the gabbling and cackling of a flock when feeding or resting 
is heard at a considerable distance. 
The nest of the Brent Goose is formed of vegetable materials, 
collected together in swampy places. 
The eggs are white, with a faint tinge of brown or greyish. 
