CHAPTER XXXII. 



THE BERNICLE GOOSE. 



(Anser Bernida.) 



" The Scottish barnacle, if I might choose, 

 That of a worme doth waxe a winged goose." 



HALL'S Virgidemiarwm, 



Like your Scotch barnacle now a block, 

 Instantly a worm, and presently a great goose." 



MARSTON. 



" The barnacles with them, which wheresoe'er they breed- 

 On trees, or rotten ships yet to my fens for feed 

 Continually they come, and chief abode do make, 

 And very hardly forc'd my plenty to forsake." 



DRATTON. 



THESE birds were formerly much more numerous on the coast than they 

 are now; they used to be met with on the plains and savannas of most 

 of the northern counties bordering on both the eastern and western 

 coasts of England; and on the western coast of Ireland they were very 

 abundant. They spend their days at sea, near sandy shores and banks, 

 and their nights inland, on fens and moors ; as is the habit with many 

 other of the wild-goose species.* They visit us in greater or less 

 numbers, according to the season. Bernicle geese have powerful 

 means of flight, and keep together in line, in the air, after the 

 manner of other wild-geese. Different to the grey-lag, they are 



* Markham, speaking of the haunts and habits of wild-geese, says, " The wild 

 goose and barnacle delight not in water above their sounding, for when they cannot 

 conveniently come to the bottom to suck upon the ouze, or fatnesse of the water, 

 they presently depart thence, and seeke more shallow places ; also, these two sorts 

 of fowle, the wild-goose and barnacle, are infinitely delighted with greene-winter 

 corne, as the blades of wheate or rye ; and, therefore, they are ever, for the most 

 part, to be found where any such graine is sowne, especially where the ends of the 

 lands are much drowned, or have much water standing about them, wherein they 

 may bath and padell themselves after their feeding. Hunger's Prevention. 



B B 



