132 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GOOSE 



its feeding grounds, parts of the seashore whereon 

 the zostera grows. However scarce other wild-fowl 

 may be during any season the brent never fails to 

 appear in large numbers. One not infrequently kills 

 what is known usually as a white-bellied brent, a bird 

 lighter in plumage than the ordinary type. Whether 

 this is a distinct bird or merely a variety of the 

 common brent has yet to be satisfactorily determined. 

 I believe it to be a variety only. It has been 

 classified as Anser brenta glaucogaster. 

 Food : sea-grass. 



' No bird,' I wrote not long ago, ' takes its way 

 through the air in so stately, so majestic a manner 

 as the grey goose. The creature seems to consider 

 itself far above all showiness, all cheap effect. There 

 is nothing of the dash of the duck or the pheasant, 

 nothing of the grace of the swallow or the lapwing, 

 nothing of the commonplace of the pigeon or the 

 rook, but just that steady, unimpassioned, imposing, 

 stately, majestic progress which differentiates the 

 flight of the grey goose so sharply from the flight of 

 all other birds. Anyone at all observant of the kind 

 of thing who once saw grey geese above him, could 

 never forget the spectacle. Unless beating against 



