PINK-T'OOTED GOOSE — BRENT GOOSE. 191 



tlieir note upon the Goose which was ' always common during* 

 the winter months^ and in some years unusually abundant/ 

 referred more properly to the present species, which, they add, 

 ' we have every reason to believe is the most abundant of the 

 two^ [Zoologist, p. 2736). The Rev. A. Matthews often saw 

 the Pink-footed Goose in Oxford Market previous to 1854. 

 With regard to the north of the county, Grey Geese of some 

 kind are occasional visitors to our water-meadows, and fields 

 of young corn, in the winter months, while at that season 

 a ' skein ' of them passing high overhead is not a very 

 uncommon sight, their sonorous ' honJc, honk, /io?ik,' falling 

 gratefully on the ear of the sportsman-naturalist. I have 

 only once been able to examine a specimen killed in the 

 district, which proved to be a White-fronted Goose, although 

 on the 19th February, 1881, in the Sorb rook meadows, near 

 Adderbury, I unsuccessfully pursued a flock of sixteen for 

 some hours, without getting a shot, the whole ' gaggle ' 

 rising in the first instance from a partly-flooded meadow, 

 at not more than a himdred and fifty paces distance. 



THE BERNICLE GOOSE. \ «^ 



Bernida leucopsis. 

 The Bernicle Goose is included by the Messrs. Matthews in 

 their list as an infrequent visitor, and Mr. C. E. Ruck-Keene, of 

 Swyncombe House, has a specimen which was shot at Henley. 

 This and the following species are known to grmners as 

 * Black Geese,' and are more attached to the coast than 

 the ' Grey Geese ' before treated of, seldom wandering in- 

 land, j 

 THE BRENT GOOSE. j ^ 6 



Bernida hrenta. 



The Brent Goose is also included by the Messrs. Matthews 



as an infrequent visitor. Three were killed at one shot on the 



Thames, near Henley, by Mr. George Jackson, who has one 



preserved (A. H. Cocks in lit.), and it has occurred so recently 



