.'>0 COMMON BKllNICLE. 



with ash : the legs are black. The female is less 

 than the male. The young of the year has a broad 

 blackish band, formed by two small spots, between the 

 beak and the eye : several blackish spots on the fore- 

 head : the feathers of the back and of the wings tipped 

 by a band of bright red; and the feathers of the sides 

 deeply tinged with ash -colour : the legs are blackish - 

 brown. Both sexes possess an obtuse knob upon the 

 bend of the wing. 



This species inhabits the arctic regions, and in its 

 autumnal and brumal migrations visits the more tem- 

 perate regions of Holland, France, Germany, Eng- 

 land, &c. It frequents the north-west coasts of this 

 country and some parts of Ireland in large flocks 

 during the winter, but is rarely seen in the south, 

 except in very severe weather. About February it 

 retires to the north to breed, and is then found in 

 Russia, Lapland, and other high latitudes. 



The history of this bird has been rendered singu- 

 larly remarkable by the marvellous accounts which 

 were related in the darker ages concerning its growth ; 

 it being a received opinion that the Bernicle was 

 produced in a kind of shell, the lepas anatifera of 

 Linne, growing on rotten ship timber, and other kinds 

 of wood and trees which lay under water on the 

 coasts ! Nay, writers of no mean repute have abso- 

 lutely written expressly upon the subject. Among 

 them may be reckoned one Maier, who asserts that 

 he opened an hundred of the shells in the Orkneys, 

 and found in all of them the rudiments of the bird 

 completely formed ! 



Gerard, the famous botanist, is another writer on 



