THE BERNACLE-GOOSE. HI 



that it has often been extremely difficult to get at the truth as to the occurrence 

 of one or other in any special locality. 



The winter distribution of the Bernacle-Goose, in the British Islands, is a 

 very peculiar one. On the east coast, from the Thames to the Pentland, it is 

 very uncommon, except, perhaps, in unusually severe seasons. On the Essex 

 coast, it is said to be a rather rare winter visitor; in east Suffolk, a rare 

 winter visitor; the same now applies to the Norfolk coast. In Gurney and 

 Fisher's list of " Birds found in Norfolk," 1846, it is spoken of as " not uncommon 

 in the winter." On the Lincolnshire coast, and Humber estuary, several small 

 flocks occurred in December, 1867 which season was an exceptionally mild one 

 and again in 1868. I have also occasionally met with small flocks on the coast, 

 and frequenting the foreshore, fittie lands, and marshes, close to the sea, where 

 it used to be known to the local gunners, at one time, as the " Spanish " Goose. 

 In recent years it has been very scarce, and we have no note of its occurrence 

 in the Humber district since 1875. 



In the neighbourhood of Flamborough, it occurs more frequently, and at 

 shorter intervals. In 1891, early in September, a large flock frequented the 

 coast north of Scarborough, and on September igth, a flock of twenty-nine were 

 seen inland, at Brompton, nine miles from Scarborough, and two shot ; a skin of 

 one of these was seen and examined by Mr. William J. Clarke, of that place. Mr. 

 Abel Chapman has never met with it on the coast of Northumberland. On 

 October i5th, 1882, nine Geese appeared at the Longstone Lighthouse, Fame 

 Islands, and one, wounded against the lantern, was subsequently shot and proved 

 a Bernacle-Goose. It is more than probable that flights of B. leucopsis reaching 

 the coast of Northumberland, pass on at once to the Solway, the distance across 

 land being only sixty miles. 



It is rather remarkable, shewing the scarcity of this species on the east 

 coast, that in the nine reports issued by the Migration Committee of the British 

 Association, from 1879 to l88 7 inclusive, although we find innumerable entries of 

 Grey Geese and Brent, this small flock at the Longstone Lighthouse, in 1882, is 

 the only notice of the Bernacle. On the east coast of Scotland, during the same 

 period, a flock of twenty-five are recorded off Dunnet Head, on December 7th, 

 1879. The references in the schedules to "Bernacles" seen in the spring, in 

 Cromarty Firth, in 1885 and 1886, Mr. Harvie-Brown thinks, undoubtedly, refer 

 to the Brent Goose.* It is not a very common visitor to the mainland of Orkney, 



* On September a8th, 1889, when, with Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown, a few miles east of Grangemouth, on the 

 Firth of Forth, I saw forty Bernacle-Geese passing west. The flock passed at the distance of one hundred 

 yards, and may have been crossing to the west coast. On the wing, when approaching, they much resemble 

 Great Black-backed Gulls. 



VOL IV. 



