Wanderings of a Naturalist 



feeding grounds. A big flock of dunlin wheel past, the sun- 

 light turning their plumage to flashing silver. Mallard fly 

 westward, making for ponds of fresh water inland. 



Not far from us a company of perhaps sixty brent geese 

 are swimming. They arrive in these waters in November, 

 and rarely remain after the middle or end of February. 

 These dates are interesting as compared with the arrivals 

 and departures of the brents at their great winter haunt at 

 Malahide, near Dublin, where I have frequently studied 

 them. Although the latitude of Malahide is considerably 

 south of Lindisfarne, and the climate much milder, the brent 

 geese reach their winter quarters here in late September, and 

 do not leave them till the very end of April. The nesting 

 grounds of the brent geese are in the Arctic very far north. 

 Indeed, even now, little is known of their breeding habits. 

 They apparently nest on the island of Kolguev, for Mr. 

 Trevor-Battye, in his book, "Icebound on Kolguev," tells 

 us how the natives slaughter thousands of these birds during 

 the moulting season, when they are quite unable to fly. As 

 showing the wing power of these geese, and their rapid 

 migration south in autumn, an instance is on record of 

 certain molluscs, known to occur only in the Sea of Okhotsk, 

 being discovered in the stomach of a brent goose shot on 

 the Yorkshire coast. 



The brent is perhaps the most truly marine of all our 

 geese. They never in any circumstances go beyond the 

 tide marks, feeding on the sea grass, known as Zostera 

 marina, which is found growing on most estuaries and mud- 

 flats. Toward dark all these geese rise in a single body, 

 consisting, perhaps, of several thousand birds, and, with 

 much hoarse calling, make their way out to sea, where they 

 spend the night. Curiously enough, the exact opposite is the 

 case with the widgeon. These duck, although their feeding 

 grounds, and even their feeding, are similar to those of the 

 brents, fly out to sea at daybreak, as described in a previous 

 chapter, and, having spent the daylight perhaps half a mile 



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