350 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



gone. A notice of this singular habit was first communicated to 

 me by Mr Alexander A. Carmichael, and has since been corrobo- 

 rated by Mr Norman M'Donald, who informs me that the 

 inhabitants of the Long island have been long familiar with it. 



Throughout the Inner Hebrides the Bernicle is also a well- 

 known winter visitant to localities where there is suitable feeding 

 ground. I have been informed by Mr Elwes that it frequents 

 Islay in very large flocks every year, where it seems to attach itself 

 to an island near Ardnave. Being but little disturbed there, and 

 finding plenty of grass on the island, and on the sand-hills of 

 Ardnave, these flocks remain the whole winter. At low water 

 they often betake themselves to the open sands at the mouth of 

 Loch Grhuinard, but make the island their head- quarters, and go 

 but seldom to feed on the shore until they have eaten up all the 

 grass of the island. They are not so shy as the grey geese, and, 

 when feeding busily, may be approached with ease under cover of 

 the sand hills.* They keep up a constant cackling both when 

 feeding and when on the wing, being in this respect unlike the 

 grey geese, which usually feed in silence. The Bernicle Goose 

 seems essentially a land bird, and is never known to settle on the 

 water unless constantly shot at. It feeds entirely on grass and 

 the roots of the bents which grow on the sand hills. G astro- 

 nomically considered, the Bernicle is by no means equal to the 

 brent goose. 



The following curious record of the habits of this bird appears 

 in "A Memoriall of the most rare and woonderfull things in 

 Scotland as they were Anno Domini 1597," the authorship of 

 which has been ascribed to one J. Monipennie : 



" At Dumbartan, directly under the castle at the mouth of the 

 river of Clyde, as it enters into the sea, there are a number of 

 claik-geese, blacke of colour, which in the night time do gather 

 great quantitie of the crops of the grasse growing vpon the land, 

 and carry the same to the sea. Then they assemble in a round, 

 and, with a wondrous curiositie, do offer euery one his owne 

 portion to the sea floud, and there attend vpon the flowing of the 

 tide, till the grasse be purified from the fresh taste and turned to 

 the salt; and lest any part thereof should escape, they labour to 



* By watching a favourable opportunity, a good raking shot may be obtained. 

 I have known as many as eighteen to have been killed in the Sound of Harris 

 at one discharge from an ordinary fowling-piece. 



