48 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



tinuous frost of their usual means of subsistence, they fly restlessly 

 to and fro in search of unfrozen pools, and under such circum- 

 stances become victims of the shore shooter in large numbers. 



Very similar in his food and general habits to the last-named 

 variety is the White-fronted Goose. He is common in Ireland, 

 and in England is frequently met with in large flocks ; but in the 

 North of Scotland he is a rare visitor. He is found in very large 

 numbers in Sweden and Lapland, in which countries he also 

 breeds. This goose is a capital bird for the table. 



The habits of the Brent Goose, on the other hand, differ con- 

 siderably from those of the Bean Goose and Grey Lag. He is 

 rarely found inland, and seldom approaches the shore closely, his 

 favourite food being the marine plant, Zostera Marina, which 

 grows abundantly in the creeks and shoals of the coasts of many 

 of our English counties. The Brent is the commonest of his tribe 

 in this country, being found frequently in such vast numbers as to 

 blacken the water or the sandbanks on which they are resting. 

 They arrive as early as the middle of August in Belfast Lough, 

 and do not leave until April or May ; but in the North of England 

 and in Scotland they do not make their appearance before 

 autumn. The night is spent at sea asleep, and at earliest dawn 

 they repair to feed to the sand-banks and shoals, where they are 

 extremely difficult to approach. Personally I never had the 

 fortune to make a really big shot at Brent with the punt-gun, 

 eight couple actually picked up being my best, I think ; but Sir 

 Frederic Hughes, of Wexford, an experienced wildfowler, on one 

 occasion, with a single discharge of his big gun carrying two 

 pounds of shot, bagged the astonishing number of forty-seven of 

 these birds ! 



