136 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GOOSE 



or harvest goose, and there grew a standing custom 

 to feast upon the wayzgoose at the festivities held to 

 celebrate the gathering in of the harvest. Says a 

 writer of the old time : 



A young wife and an arvyst gos, 

 Moche gagil with both. 1 



It has been supposed by many that the name bean 

 goose was given to the bird on account of its liking 

 for beans, and by many others that it was bestowed 

 as a consequence of the supposed resemblance of the 

 shield on the tip of the beak to a bean. Either of 

 these theories is possible ; but, as the resemblance of 

 the shield to a bean is more imaginary than real, and 

 as the grey goose of to-day shows no great taste for 

 beans indeed, will resort to a wheat or barley 

 rather than a bean stubble when it has the choice- 

 each seems to me highly doubtful. Myself, I think 

 a far more probable supposition is that the far-back 

 namers of the bird called it the bane goose (Anglo- 

 Saxon bana), that is, the destroying or ruining goose, 

 the goose that strayed in huge gaggles over the fields 

 of young corn and did irreparable damage. Another 

 popular supposition in connection with this bird is 

 that the term bean-feast originated with those harvest 

 1 Reliquia Antiques. 



