BEAN GOOSE. 25 



birds were sent to our Norwich market, but I was 

 unable to ascertain from what part of the county. 

 From the latter date, until the commencement of 1871, 

 I had not met with this species either at our bird- 

 stuifers or poulterers ; but on the llth of January, 

 during the intense frost which prevailed at that time, 

 Mr. H. Upcher succeeded in killing one out of a flock 

 of three that he found feeding within shot of a frozen 

 ditch at Blakeney ; and on the llth of February Mr. 

 Hamond sent me a fine adult male, which had been shot 

 at Castleacre, on the 9th, by Mr. Beverley Leeds. 



According to Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, a pair of 

 bean-geese killed at Horsey, in March, 1846, " appeared 

 to have been inclined to nest there," but unless other 

 indications were remarked at the time, their appear- 

 ance at that date would scarcely warrant such an 

 inference. On the 12th of June, 1865, Mr. T. W. 

 Cremer shot a bean goose at Beeston, near Crorner, in 

 company with two Canada geese, but whether all three 

 had escaped from some private water, or the bean, in 

 a wild state, had been attracted by the semi-domes- 

 ticated Canadians, it is impossible to say. I may here 

 mention, also, that in July, 1866, Mr. F. Norgate, of 

 Sparham, saw in a pond on the premises of Mr. Wells, 

 of Sedgeford, a bean-gander, which had been shot wild, 

 but only winged, and this bird was said to have attached 

 itself to some swan-geese which had nests close by. 

 The man who had charge of the fowls there being also 

 sheldrakes, which nested in rabbit-holes near the pond 

 had no doubt from the actions of the birds that a cross 

 had been effected, but all the eggs examined by Mr. 

 Norgate proved to be rotten, and showed no signs of 

 impregnation . 



Pennant describes this species as arriving in Lincoln- 

 shire in autumn, and taking its departure again in May, 

 but never remaining " to breed in the fens " ; he also 



E 



