BEAN GOOSE. NATATORES. ANSER. 265 



ciently distant from the main land to afford a secure re- 

 treat ; and where the approach of an enemy must become 

 visible, or at least audible to their acute organs, before it 

 could endanger their safety. The haunts or feeding grounds 

 of these birds are more frequently in the higher districts 

 than in the lower and marshy tracts of the country, and they 

 give the preference to open land, or where the inclosures 

 are very large. They feed much upon the tender wheat, Food, 

 sometimes injuring these fields to a great extent ; and they 

 frequent also the stubbles, particularly such as are laid down 

 with clover and other grasses. In the early part of spring 

 they often alight upon the newly sown bean and pea fields, 

 picking up greedily such of the pulse as is left on the sur- 

 face ; and I am inclined to think that their trivial name has 

 been acquired from their apparent predilection for this kind 

 of food, rather than from the shape and aspect of the nail of 

 the upper mandible, to which it has been generally attribu- 

 ted. They usually fly at a considerable elevation, either in 

 a diagonal line, or in two such lines, opposed to each other, 

 and forming a leading acute angle, like the other species ; 

 and when on wing they maintain a loud cackling, in which 

 the voices of the two sexes may be easily distinguished. 

 The rate at which they move, when favoured by a gentle 

 breeze, is seldom less than from forty to fifty miles an hour, 

 a velocity which enables them to have their roosting place 

 far removed from the district they frequent by day. The 

 principal breeding stations, or summer retreats, of the Bean 

 Goose are in countries within the arctic circle ;, it is said, how- 

 ever, that great numbers breed annually in Harris, and some 

 of the other outermost Western Islands. The nest is made 

 in the marshy grounds, and formed of grasses and other dry 

 vegetable materials ; the eggs are white, and from eight to 

 twelve in number. The trachea of this species increases in 

 diameter towards the middle, and the bronchiae are short and 

 tumid. The denticulated lamina of the sides of the bill are 

 similar in formation to those of Anser palustris, and form 



