136 BRENT GOOSE. 



In Ireland it is also common, and some are said to have 

 bred there, but it is considered that they may have been 

 birds which had been partially tamed and had flown away. 



It arrives in Orkney in the autumn, quitting again the 

 following spring. 



This species chiefly affects the sea-shore, but some have 

 at different times been met with inland. 



They arrive in large numbers about the beginning of 

 October, and others keep constantly joining the first comers 

 till the beginning of November. They begin to leave again 

 by the end of February or beginning of March, and before 

 April all have gone. 



They are excellent eating, and are very easily kept in a 

 domesticated state. They collect in immense flocks, so as 

 often even to blacken the surface of the ground. In .their 

 wild state they appear not to be shy of human approach, 

 probably as being unaccustomed to danger from that quarter 

 in the distant parts of the world to which they naturally 

 belong. Here, however, like so many other birds, which if 

 not disturbed and harassed, would retain their natural character, 

 they soon become extremely wary. Like the fortresses in the 

 Baltic, they are only to be approached in the day-time, when 

 on the water, by a low gun-boat, the invention of Colonel 

 Hawker, previously to the adoption of which mode, they 

 used to afford many 'Nights Entertainments' to the cautious 

 fowlers of a less inventive age. They thrive well in con- 

 finement, and I have seen them on a lawn happy and contented ; 

 they have been known, as stated by Audubon and others, 

 to produce young while thus kept. 



They rise high into the air in circular courses before 

 departing on their migration, and then move off over the 

 sea. The can dive easily if desirous to do so, but such is 

 not their ordinary habit. 



They feed on marine vegetables, wrack, and grasses, and 

 occasionally on small shell-fish; some sand is also swallowed. 



Meyer says of the note, 'Its description is varied, sounding 

 like the different expressions, cuang, rott, and crock, all 

 expressed in a hurried and harsh manner.' The clamour of 

 the gabbling and cackling of a flock when feeding or resting 

 is heard at a considerable distance. 



The nest of the Brent G-oose is formed of vegetable materials, 

 collected together in swampy places. 



The eggs are white, with a faint tinge of brown or greyish. 



