BEAN GOOSE. . 155 



We saw several old birds, and the nests that had been 

 used, which are concealed in heath upwards of three fget 

 in height, that covers the islands. The eggs were all 

 hatched, and most of the young had betaken themselves 

 to the neighbouring moors, where they continue till able 

 to fly, secreting themselves when disturbed, in the highest 

 heather. At Tongue we saw some goslings about a month 

 old (following a hen), which had been hatched from eggs 

 taken at Loch Laighal. We were told they became 

 nearly as tame as common Geese, but refuse to intermix 

 or breed with them. The eggs, from five to seven in 

 number, are smaller than those of the common Goose, but 

 of a similar shape and colour. 



A few pairs, it is said, breed annually in Sunbiggin 

 Tarn, near Orton, in Westmoreland, and the islands of 

 Lewis and Harris, among the Hebrides, are also named 

 as places regularly visited by Bean Geese in summer, 

 where, according to Pennant, they feed on green corn to 

 an injurious extent. A pair of Bean Geese belonging to 

 the Ornithological Society of London produced a brood 

 of five, in St. James's Park : the young were observed to 

 grow very rapidly. The egg of a Bean Goose brought 

 from Norway, and given me by Mr. Hewitson, is of a 

 dull white ; three inches five lines long, by two inches 

 five lines in breadth. The eggs produced by the Bean 

 Goose in the Park, were a little smaller. The Bean Goose 

 is common during winter in Ireland, and in North Wales, 

 but is more rare in the southern counties of England, in- 

 creasing in frequency on going northward. Mr. Dann's 

 note on this species is as follows : " This Goose is said to 

 be very numerous on the north-west coast of Norway. 

 I have seen it in vast numbers on the Tornea river in Sep- 

 tember ; and the young ones are often caught on the islands 

 at the head of the Bothnian Gulph, and tamed. They 



