134 BERXTCLE GOOSE. 



it please them to repair to me, and I shall satisfie them by 

 the testimonie of good witnesses.' 



They fly in a strong and powerful manner, the pairs or 

 families keeping together and forming a line. In alighting 

 a considerable noise is produced by the wings. 



Their food consists of the leaves and roots of maritime 

 plants, as well as at times of the blades of growing corn, 

 rye, and grasses, as also of insects and their larvae, for which 

 they seek with the head and neck below water. 



These birds appear to breed in large swamps and morasses. 



The eggs are of a greenish white colour. 



Male; weight, between four and five pounds; length, two 

 feet one inch; bill, very small and black; from its base a 

 broad black patch or line extends to the eye ; iris, dark brown ; 

 forehead, and head on the sides, white; crown, neck all round, 

 and nape, glossy black. Chin and throat, white; breast, on 

 the upper part, glossy black, the remainder greyish white, 

 ending in silvery white, with light greyish bars on the sides; 

 the feathers on the legs black, with pale tips; back, fine bluish 

 grey, with black or brownish black and white bars, the latter 

 colour gradually widened, giving it an elegant dappled appear- 

 ance; below, the back is black, on the lower part, bluish black. 



The wings have the first quill feather the longest. Greater 

 and lesser wing coverts, fine bluish grey, each feather edged 

 with white, inside which at the tip is a crescent of bluish 

 black. Primaries, almost black, edged a little way from the 

 tips with bluish grey, at the base light grey on the outer 

 webs; tertiaries, grey, with white edges, and a crescent of 

 bluish black at the tip, inside the white margin. The tail, 

 which consists of fourteen feathers, is nearly black, the feathers 

 are almost of a length, so that it is nearly square at the 

 end; upper tail coverts, white, in a crescent shape; under 

 tail coverts, silvery white. The legs, which are short and 

 thick, are, as the toes, claws, and webs, black. 



The female is like the male. 



The young have the forehead spotted with black, the white 

 on the sides of the head interspersed with black feathers; the 

 streak between the bill and the eye much wider than in the 

 old birds; the grey marks on the sides of the breast darker, 

 and the white not so clear. The back darker, with a tinge 

 of red on the tips of the feathers; the wing coverts similarly 

 marked; the legs not so dark as in the old bird, being tinged 

 with reddish brown. 



