BERNICLE GOOSE. 167 



east ; they are naturally wild and shy, but when made 

 captive they very soon become as familiar as our domestic 

 Geese, and have lived a very long time in confinement, in 

 one instance as much as thirty-two years. In a commu- 

 nication to the Zoological Society, from the late Earl of 

 Derby, the President, dated Prescot, in May, 1840, it was 

 stated that on the " Great Water of his lordship's park, a 

 Bernicle Goose paired with a White-fronted Goose, and 

 a brood were hatched out." A small flock of Bernicles, 

 consisting of one gander and four geese, have been kept 

 for several seasons on the canal in St. James's Park by 

 the Ornithological Society, and young ones produced in 

 the years 1844- and 45. This species is a regular winter 

 visitor to Ireland, and has been taken there in the north, 

 north-east, at Dublin, and in the south. Mr. Selby says 

 it is sometimes abundant on the Lancashire coast, and in 

 the Solway Firth. It has occasionally been taken in 

 Wales, in Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Sussex, Cam- 

 bridgeshire, Norfolk, and in Northumberland. They are 

 observed to frequent marshes on the coast, where they feed 

 on the grasses, and the tender parts of aquatic plants. The 

 flesh is of good flavour, and the birds are not uncommon 

 in the shops of our London poulterers, from November to 

 February, about which time they take their departure for 

 more northern latitudes, in which they produce their young. 

 Their nesting habits are little known; but the eggs laid 

 by the birds in the park were white ; two inches and 

 three quarters long, by one inch and seven-eighths in 

 breadth. Mr. Dann's note in reference to this species, 

 says, " A skin of this Goose was shown me by some Laps 

 near Gillivara, who were ignorant of the bird, never having 

 seen it before. It was shot at Killingsuvanda. It migrates 

 in vast numbers along the western coast of Norway, from 

 the Naze of Norway northwards, where it generally seems 



