196 



THE BIRDS OF ESSEX. 



all the rivers. * » *. The Geese have less and less feeding ground every year. 

 There is hardly a place where they can sit at low water and feed far enough from 

 the edge not to be liable to be disturbed ; 3'et the Geese of late years come more 

 regularly than thirty or forty years ago. Then, in mild winters, we often saw 

 none, or next to none, through whole seasons. I know not why this is — perhaps 

 because, on account of a run of good breeding years, there are more of the birds, 

 or perhaps, as there is much less of the weed they eat, there may be less of it 

 adrift at sea — for the Geese used sometimes to remain all the winter without 

 coming within sight of land. * * * I will make one m.ore remark about them : 

 They never go to sleep. Look at them when you will with a telescope, all day 

 the}' are wide awake, and all night they seem equally busy, whether you find 

 them near the land or go off to sea after them on a calm night. When far off 

 at sea, you may hear their noise the whole night, shifting its bearing with the 

 tide. I never saw, or heard of anyone seeing, a Brent Goose with its head on its 

 back, as if asleep [though] Ducks and Wigeon may often be seen in this position." 



Barnacle Goose : Beriiicla leucopsis. 



A rather uncommon winter visitor, very much less abundant than 

 the Brent Goose. 



Lindsey, writing from 

 Harwich in 185 1, speaks 

 of it (27. App. 59) as "a 

 winter visitor here, ap- 

 pearing in considerable 

 flocks, particularly when 

 the weather is severe."' 

 The Parsons Collection 

 contains one shot by Mr. 

 Parsons on New England 

 Island, on Dec, nth, 

 -If 1830. In the winter of 

 ,^ 1870-71 a few were seen 

 m the Thames estuary, 

 in company with Brent 

 Geese (Smee — 34. 2605). 

 Mr. F. Spalding has two, 

 shot at Tollesbury in 

 January, 1887. Mr. Hope^ 

 v\ho has specimens shot 

 at Maldon in March, 

 1886, says it is "not un- 

 common in small lots." 

 Mr. Fitch remembers four 

 Dr. Laver describes it as 

 Mr. Pettitthas a couple 



BARNACLE GOOSE, J^. 



being shot out of one his ponds at Brick House, Maldon. 

 rare in both the Colchester and the Paglesham districts, 

 shot recently with two others at Dovercourt, and Mr. Hope writes : " On 

 June i6th [1889], four Barnacle Geese flew out of the Deben River [Suffolk], and 

 ■went southward across the Cork Sand, off Harwich. I have never seen these 

 birds at this time of the 3-ear before." Curiously enough, Mr. Fitch also tells 

 me that on the 26th of the same month he saw four Geese fly over the east end of 

 Canvey Island, on which they settled. 



[Canada Goose : Bcrtiicia canadensia. 



An introduced North American species, which has been admitted 



