BRENT GOOSE. 157 
BERNACLE GOOSE. 
BERNICLA LEUCOPSIS (Bechstein). 
Brockholes, writing in 1874, states that ‘ prior to 1862, 
this species was very common on the Dee Marshes, 
now it is very scarce; sometimes a whole winter passes 
without any being seen’;! and Dr. Dobie says that it is 
‘now very rare, if indeed it ever visits us. Captain 
Congreve has one in his collection at Burton.’ 
BRENT GOOSE. 
BERNICLA BRENTA (Pallas). 
The Brent Goose still visits the Dee Estuary in 
winter in considerable numbers. On February 7th, 
1888, Mr. A. O. Walker saw about two hundred on 
the Marshes.2. There is a specimen in the Grosvenor 
Museum, Chester, which was obtained at Burton on 
December 14th, 1884 Mr. L. Jones has one which 
he shot at Hilbre Island in February 1895; and in 
the same month one was killed on Ince Marsh by 
Mr. Warburton. Inland, a Brent Goose was shot at 
Combermere on November 5th, 1895.8 
The Canada Goose, Bernicla canadensis (Linnzeus), 
has been long naturalised in England, and to-day exists 
in a perfectly wild state in Cheshire, breeding on many 
of the meres. Though there is no reason to suppose 
that any of the birds which have been shot on the 
Dee Marshes and elsewhere were immigrants from the 
American continent, some mention must be made of 
1 Brockholes, op. cit. p. 13. 2 Dobie, op. cit. p. 321. 
° H. E. Forrest, The Fauna of Shropshire, p. 145. 
