BRITISH BIRDS. 255 



dusky: but such varyings are discernible in many 

 other birds, for it seldom happens that two are 

 found exactly alike. 



The Brent Geese, like other species of the same 

 genus, quit the rigours of the north in winter, and 

 spread themselves southward in greater or less 

 numbers, impelled forward according to the 

 severity of the season, in search of milder 

 climates. They are then met with on the British 

 shores, and spend the winter months in the rivers, 

 lakes, and marshes in the interior parts, feeding 

 mostly upon the roots, and also on the blades of 

 the long coarse grasses and plants which grow in 

 the water : but indeed their varied modes of living, 

 as well as their other habits and propensities, and 

 their migrations, haltings, breeding places, &c., do 

 not differ materially from those of the other 

 numerous families of the Wild Geese. Buffon 

 gives a detail of the devastations which they 

 made, in the hard winters of 1740 and 1765, upon 

 the corn fields on the coast of Picardy, in France, 

 where they appeared in such immense flocks, that 

 the people were literally raised (en masse we sup- 

 pose) in order to attempt their extirpation, which, 

 however, it seems they could not effect, and a 

 change in the weather only, caused these unwel- 

 come visitants to depart. Capt. Sabine says they 

 breed in great numbers on the islands of the Polar 

 Sea. 



The foregoing figure was drawn from one shot at 

 Ax well Park, near Newcastle upon Tyne. There 

 was a stuffed specimen in the Wycliffe Museum, 

 which slightly varied in the markings of the 

 plumage. 



