34 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



not seen at all at Holkham, and a single adult bird 

 which I purchased in the Norwich market, on the 18th 

 of February, was the only example that came under my 

 notice during that inclement season. 



The majority of specimens procured in Norfolk are 

 in immature plumage, the bars on the breast (common 

 to both sexes in an adult state) being either wanting or 

 only partially assumed ;* but even in those most perfect 

 as to the pectoral bands there is, as a rule, far less 

 grey about the feathers of the back and wings than in 

 either the adult pink-footed or grey-lag goose. 



BERNICLA LEUCOPSIS (Temminck). 

 BEKNACLE GOOSE. 



The term "not uncommon " as applied to this species 

 by Messrs. Paget in 1834, and by Messrs. Gurney 

 and Fisher in 1846, is certainly not applicable at the 

 present time, nor can I give any satisfactory reason for 

 its rarity of late years on our coast, even in the most 

 severe winters. My own notes for the last twenty years 

 supply but a small list of specimens observed at long 

 and uncertain intervals, either in the Norwich market 

 or birdstuffers' shops ; nor have I any reason to suppose 

 that it has occurred much more frequently at Lynn, the 

 chief emporium for this class of wild fowl. Mr. Dowell 



* The chief breeding quarters of this species in Europe are 

 probably Iceland. In the northern parts of Scandinavia it appears 

 not to be known except possibly as an accidental straggler, its 

 place there being taken by the smaller species (A. erythropus) 

 (Linn.), the occurrence of which in the British Islands has not 

 yet been recorded, though from the fact that it yearly visits 

 Germany and Holland it will very likely be found some day in this 

 country. (See Proc. Zool. Soc., 1860, pp. 339-341.) 



