BERNICLE GOOSE. NATATORES. ANSER. 269 



propriate specific names has arisen amongst succeeding wri- 

 ters, they having still continued the appellation Erythropus 

 to the Bernicle, instead of giving it to its proper object. 

 TEMMINCK and BECHSTEIN, who saw the impropriety of re- 

 taining a specific name so inapplicable to the species (whose 

 legs and feet are black), instead of restoring that imposed by 

 the predecessors of LINN^US, gave it the new one of Leu- 

 copsis ; and also neglected to transfer that of Erythropus to 

 its real representative, the Anas albifrons of GMELIN and 

 LATHAM. Dr FLEMING, however, in his " History of Bri- 

 tish Animals,"" has now rectified these errors, and the White- 

 fronted and Bernicle Geese are each described under their 

 appropriate titles of A. Erythropus and A. Bermcla. The 

 Bernicle is amongst the number of our winter visitants, an- a 



nually resorting in vast numbers, upon the approach of 

 autumn, to the western shores of Britain, and to the north 

 of Ireland. Upon the Lancashire coast, the Solway Frith, 

 &c. it is very abundant ; frequenting the marshy grounds 

 that are occasionally covered by the spring-tides, and such 

 sands as produce the sea-grasses and plants upon which it 

 feeds. Upon the eastern and southern shores of Britain it Food. 

 is of rare occurrence, its place being supplied by its nearly- 

 allied congener, the Brent Goose (Anser Brenta) ; which 

 again is as rarely seen upon the opposite coast of the island*. 

 Like the rest of its genus, the Bernicle is a very wary bird, 

 and can only be approached by the most cautious ma- 

 noeuvres. It is sometimes shot by moonlight, when it comes 

 on the sands to feed, by persons crouched on the ground, or 

 from behind any occasional shelter, in such places as the 

 flocks are known to frequent. Its flesh is sweet and tender, 



" WILLOUGHBY, in his valuable " Ornithology," (page 360, edit. 1678), 

 mentions having seen the stuffed skin of the Bernicle in Sir W. FORSTER'S 

 hall at Bamburgh Castle, which I consider indicative of its scarcity on the 

 Northumbrian coast at that period, being doubtless hung up as a rara avis. 

 Brent Geese are still to be seen in great numbers in Budle Bay, not more 

 than a mile to the northward of Bamburgh Castle. 



