THE BEHNACLE-GOOSE. ^ 



flocks on the open sands, at low tide, in the Sounds of Benbecula and South 

 Uist ; and as soon as one detachment is on the wing it is seen to be guided by 

 a leader, who points the way with a strong flight northwards, maintaining a noisy 

 bearing until he gets the flock into the right course. After an hour's interval, 

 he is seen returning, with noisy gabble, alone, southwards to the main body, and 

 taking off another detachment as before, until the whole are gone. A notice of 

 this singular habit was first communicated to me by Mr. Alexander A. Carmichael, 

 and has since been corroborated by Mr. Norman M'Donald, who informs me that 

 the inhabitants of the Long Island, have been long familiar with it." 



Perhaps the best account of the habits of the Bernacle- Goose, is that given 

 in Messrs. Macpherson's and Duckworth's " Birds of Cumberland." " Upon 

 the English side of the Solway, the marshes of Rockcliffe and Newton are its 

 chief feeding groiinds, especially Rockcliffe, where the western extremity of the 

 marsh affords fine feeding ground, on the sand, between high tide mark and sound 

 grazing land." They arrive at their winter quarters about the last week in 

 October. The late Mr. A. Smith, the authors' principal informant, considered 

 that they feed chiefly by night, but when much persecuted and harassed, they 

 find it safer to feed by day. 



" It is interesting to wait upon the point of Burgh marsh, before day-break, 

 and listen to the cries of the Bernacles, feeding upon the point of Rockcliffe 

 marsh, just opposite. About an hour after day-break, they rise en masse from their 

 feeding ground, and after wheeling up and down the Solway for a few moments, 

 displaying their pretty barred grey, black, and white plumage against the mud- 

 flats, they fly seawards to the estuary of the Wampool, or, circling round, pitch 

 in a long line upon the exposed mud half a mile to windward. Bernacle- Geese 

 are constantly vociferous, especially when feeding, and Mr. A. Smith compares the 

 volume of sound produced by a flock of several hundred feeding at night together, 

 as heard at a distance, to a pack of harriers in full cry." Many other details 

 concerning the habits of this Goose are recorded in the " Fauna of Lakeland." 



The adult Bernacle is an exceedingly handsome bird, either wild or domesti- 

 cated ; it readily loses its wildness, becoming thoroughly tame. The weight of 

 a male in good condition is from \\ to 6 Ibs. 



