270 



DUCKS, GEESE, SWANS, AND PELICANS. 



obliquely, or at right angles to it, and again mingling altogether 

 under some unexplained impulse. Their voice, as it proceeds from 

 a large flock at some distance off, is clear and shrill, producing a 

 pleasant harmony. 



The Brent Goose, or Black-faced Bernicle, is much smaller than 

 the Anser leucopsis, and easily distinguished from it by the face 

 and head being entirely black. They seem to have visited our 

 shores in great numbers in former years. In the years 1739-40 

 these birds were so abundant on the French coast that the people 

 rose en masse to destroy them, and so numerous on the Kentish 

 coast that many were taken in a starving condition. Mr. 



Fig. 98. White-fronted Bernicle Goose (Anser erythropus). 



McGillivray met with large flocks of them in Cromarty Bay, 

 Beauley Firth, and Montrose Basin. Mr. Selby observed them as 

 constant visitors on the shallow waters between Holy Island and 

 the mainland, and other parts of the coast. 



THE SWAN (Cygnus). 



The Swan, which belongs to the family of Lamellirostral Pal- 

 mipedes, has been an object of admiration in all ages for its 

 noble and elegant proportions, the graceful curvature of its neck, 

 its small and shapely oval head, its beak so prominent at the 

 base, the gracefully-swelling rotundity of its body, its plumage 



