BRENT GOOSE. 351 



hold it in with labour of their nebbes. Thereafter orderly euery 

 fowle eates his portion. And this custom they obserue perpetually. 

 They are verie fatte, and very delicious to bee eaten." 



It is not a little strange that these birds, notwithstanding the 

 extraordinary changes that have taken place, and the continual 

 passing and repassing of large ships and steamboats, should still 

 visit the locality in considerable numbers. I have been informed 

 by Mr J. Watson that he has of late years seen large flocks near 

 Cardross, and heard their noisy outcries after nightfall. 



THE BKENT GOOSE. 



ANSER TORQUATUS. 

 Guirenan. 



THROUGHOUT western Scotland the Brent Goose is much less 

 common than the preceding species a circumstance arising 

 probably from a comparative want of suitable feeding ground. It 

 is therefore more local in its habits with us than on the eastern 

 shores, where such places as the Firths of Beauly and Cromarty 

 prove so great an attraction. Though it occurs in the Outer 

 Hebrides, one can never calculate with certainty on seeing it, as in 

 the case of the bernicle. A few are known to frequent the west 

 side of Loch Bee, in South Uist, where the water is occasionally 

 brackish, and small flocks have sometimes been met with in 

 Benbecula and North Uist. Its visits are, of course, strictly 

 confined to the winter months. In the circle of the inner islands, 

 the best known haunt of the Brent is in Islay. A very large flock 

 is annually observed at Loch Indaal a locality much better suited 

 to the habits of the bird than most Highland sea lochs, on account 

 of the abundance of grass which grows on the muddy sands, and 

 which forms the principal food of the species. Mr Elwes, who has 

 observed this flock, informs me that the Brent Geese remain at 

 Loch Indaal during the entire winter, and that at low water they 

 sit a good deal on the sands, and seem to feed principally by day, 

 being very little disturbed and sometimes tame enough to let a 

 boat approach within seventy or eighty yards before rising. Their 

 cry is a deep metallic note something like craunk, craunk, repeated 

 several times, but they do not utter it much, except when they 



