WATEft FOWL. 



rather to have descended for rest than for other 

 refreshment. When they have sate in this manner 

 for an hour or two, I have heard one of them, 

 with a loud long note, sound a kind of charge, to 

 which the rest punctually attended, and they pur- 

 sued their journey with renewed alacrity. Their 

 flight is very regularly arranged ; they either go 

 in a line abreast, or in two lines, joining in an 

 angle in the middle. I doubt whether the form 

 of their flight be thus arranged to cut the air with 

 greater ease, as is commonly believed j I am more 

 apt to think it is to present a smaller mark to 

 fowlers from below. A bullet might easily reach 

 them if huddled together in a flock, and the same 

 discharge might destroy several at once ; but by 

 their manner of flying no shot from below can 

 affect above one of them ; and from the height 

 at which they fly, this is not easy to be hit. 



The Barnacle differs in some respects from both 

 these ; being less than either, with a black bill, 

 much shorter than either of the preceding. It is 

 scarcely necessary to combat the idle error of this 

 bird's being bred from a shell sticking to ships' 

 bottoms ; it is well known to be hatched from an 

 egg in the ordinary manner, and to differ in very 

 few particulars from all the rest of its kind. 



The Brent goose is still less than the former, 

 and not bigger than a Muscovy duck, except 

 that the body is longer. The head, neck, and 

 upper part of the breast, are black j about the 

 middle of the neck, on each side, are two small 

 spots or lines of white, which together appear 

 like a ring. 



