ANSERES. ( 93 ) ANATID&. 



THE BERNACLE GOOSE. 



THE WHITE-FACED BERNICLE GOOSE, CLAIKIS, CLAKIS, CLAIK 



GOOSE, BARNACLE, WHITE-CHEEKED BARNACLE, 



LAND BARNACLE. 



Bernicla leucopsis. 



All Water-foullis war swemand thair gude speid ; 

 Alse out of growand treis thair saw I breid, 

 Fowlis that hingand be thair nebbis grew. 



GAWIN DOUGLAS,* The Palace of Honour. 



THIS winter visitor, which can be easily distinguished from 

 the Brent Goose by its white forehead and cheeks, is occa- 

 sionally seen off the coast of the county. It seldom visits 

 the inland parts of Berwickshire, but stragglers have been 

 sometimes shot at a distance from the sea. Mr. Lockie in- 

 forms me that one visited Dod Mill Pond in the autumn 

 of 1883, and remained there for about two months. It 

 became somewhat tame, and used to follow the farmyard 

 ducks, but disappeared when the pond became frozen over 

 in winter. Mr. John Wilson, Chapelhill, Cockburnspath, 

 writes that a flock of ten Bernacle Geese visited Chapelhill 

 Farm in January 1876, when he shot two of them. 



It is a very noisy bird, and both when feeding and on 

 the wing keeps up a continual cackling sound. Its food 

 consists chiefly of grass and bents. 



1 Gawin Douglas, who was born in 1475, was Rector of the parish of Preston- 

 kirk, in East-Lothian, 1496, and in 1509 Dean of the Collegiate Church of St. 

 Giles, Edinburgh. He was made Bishop of Dunkeld 1516, and died of the plague 

 in London 1522. 



