BEAN GOOSE. 123 



also in the Hebrides, in the Islands of Harris and Lewis; and 

 no doubt in many other parts. A few are said to have nests 

 every year about Tunbiggin Tarn, near Orion, in Westmoreland; 

 others in Cumberland. 



The species is also common in Wales and in Ireland, as a 

 winter visitant. In Orkney, it has been observed occasionally 

 during the early part of the winter, but its visits are very 

 uncertain. 



In September and October they wend their way southwards. 



The Bean Goose has been kept on the ornamental water in 

 St. James' Park, London, and has hatched its young there. 

 It is very readily tamed if the eggs are procured, and young 

 birds thus obtained for early domestication. The like indeed 

 is the case with older birds. One was obtained by Mr. George 

 Johnson, of Melton Ross, Lincolnshire, in 1851, of which, 

 though an old bird and procured with the gun, he wrote me 

 word, 'he is at this time so tame that he will eat out of my 

 hand, and come any time at call, and is in every way more 

 domesticated than our common Geese.' 



They are naturally very shy and watchful, so as only to be 

 approachable by stratagem. The well-known saying, 'A Wild 

 Goose chase,' like most or all proverbial expressions, conveys 

 the result of wide-spread experience. These birds are friendly 

 and sociable among themselves. In the tarne state they soon 

 come to associate and consort with the common Geese: they 

 are said to attain a great age. 



These Wild Geese, when there are only a few together, 

 fly in a straight line one after the other, but when numbers 

 increase its length, it diverges into two in the form of a 

 wedge, some old Gander, the patriarch of the flock, leading 

 the van. When on their migration they keep aloft, but at 

 other times nearer to the ground, especially if the wind be 

 high, or the weather thick ' and misty. They fly, as has 

 been ascertained, at the rate of from forty to fifty miles an 

 hour. 



They arrive at their feeding grounds with great regularity, 

 at the early dawn of the morning, and remain till towards 

 dusk in the evening, when, as before mentioned, they wing 

 their way in long strings to the sea, or the sand banks of 

 estuaries and rivers, their loud gabble calling attention to 

 them overhead as they go. In such places, out of the reach 

 of danger, they rest in security. They do much mischief in 

 clover fields, which crop they seem very much addicted to. 



