264 NATATORES. ANSER. BEAN GOOSE. 



THE Bean, or as it is very frequently called, the Wild 

 Goose, bears in general appearance, and in the colour of its 

 plumage, a great resemblance to the preceding species, and 

 with which it is sometimes confounded. It may, however, 

 be always distinguished from the Grey Lag by the form of 

 its bill, which is comparatively much smaller, shorter, and 

 more compressed towards the end. The colour of that mem- 

 ber also differs, the basal part of the under mandible, and 

 that of the upper as far as the line of the nostrils, with the 

 nails of both mandibles, being black, and the intermediate 

 part flesh-red, inclining to orange. It is also generally less, 

 though I have had specimens equal in bulk to the smaller 

 individuals of Anser palustris ; and the wings of the present 

 species, when closed, reach beyond the end of the tail. In 

 Periodical Britain it is well known as a regular winter visitant, arriving 

 in large bodies from its northern summer haunts, during Sep- 

 tember or the beginning of October, and seldom taking its 

 final departure before the end of April or beginning of May. 

 The various flocks, during their residence in this country, 

 have each their particular haunts or feeding districts, to 

 which on each ensuing season they invariably return, as I 

 have found to be the case in Northumberland and the south- 

 ern parts of Scotland, where Wild Geese have been known 

 to frequent certain localities for a continued series of years. 

 The habits of this and the preceding species are very simi- 

 lar, and they shew the same vigilance, and use the same 

 means of guarding against surprise : their capture is there- 

 fore proportionably difficult, and it is only by stratagem 

 that, when at rest on the ground or feeding, they can be ap- 

 proached within gun-shot. In stormy weather, when they 

 are compelled to fly lower than they usually do, they may 

 be sometimes intercepted from a hedge or bank, situated in 

 the route they are observed to take early in the morning, in 

 passing to their feeding ground. At night they retire to the 

 water, or else (as I have often remarked in Northumber- 

 land) to some ridge or bar of sand on the sea coast, suffi- 



