422 BRENT GEESE AND MARINE GRASS. 



it has been mentioned as such in all the histories of 

 British America ; a good account of it has been lately 

 given in The Field newspaper by a British naval officer f 

 who lately obtained some days' shooting there, and 

 who killed a little over 400 birds in five days' sport. 



The sight of the enormous flights of duck, as the 

 sportsman's punt is being poled along to his shooting 

 station, " must (he states) be seen to be realized : the 

 rising of the ducks from the reeds and rice almost 

 baffling description in numbers and variety: finer 

 sport cannot be imagined." * 



There is just one other water-plant which we think 

 ought to be briefly mentioned, as a game feeding 

 substance, namely the marine grass (Zostera Marina}^ 

 a long, narrow, ribbon-like sea-grass, of yellowish 

 green colour, which grows plentifully on mud flats 

 left exposed by the tide in Great Britain, f and many 

 other countries, as far north as the Arctic Circle. It 

 forms the great attraction to wild geese ; and the well- 

 known brent goose (Bernicla Brentd), one of the best 

 table birds of the goose species, is said to live upon 

 it almost exclusively. The pursuit of these extremely 

 shy, wild birds, necessarily mainly falls to the lot of 

 the regular wildfowler in his gunning punt. The 

 fowling-piece is too light a weapon for brent geese, 

 as it is difficult to get within shot. The brent goose 

 nests in the Arctic regions, and rarely visits our 

 coasts in any considerable numbers, until driven from 



* See letter signed "J.H.O. H.M.S. Blake" from Bermuda, Nov. 

 21, 1894, in Field of January 12, 1895, p. 67. 



t In Sowerby's English Botany, 3rd Edit., Vol. ix (1869), three 

 varieties of this grasswrack are figured viz., i. Zostera Marina, var^ 

 Genuina (Linn.) Vol. ix., plate 1429, p. 60. 2. Zostera Marina: var. 

 Angustifolia, Vol. ix, plate 1430, described p. 60. 3. Zostera Nana y 

 or Dwarf Grasswrack, Vol. ix, plate 1431, described pp. 61 and 62 



