316 KATATOKES. 



The state of knowledge then did not enable people to trace 

 them farther than that sea on which they made their appear- 

 ance ; and the metamorphosis of the acorn-shells was pro- 

 bably the most likely explanation that occurred, and many of 

 our conjectures have not a much more rational foundation. 

 The mistakes of former times should teach us humility, not 

 pride, distrust in ourselves, rather than triumph. We 

 ourselves were born as ignorant as the most abject savages on 

 the face of the earth ; and had it not been for the labours of 

 those very men whom we thus criticise, we should have 

 remained in that ignorance. Some of us take the lesson, and 

 give no thanks ; others purloin the work, and libel the author ; 

 and thereupon we pride ourselves, and exult. 



From the early period of the season at which the barnacle 

 goose leaves our shores, it is probable that it breeds at some 

 distance, though the month of February is not the time at 

 which birds, that are known to breed in the arctic countries 

 far to the north, take their departure.* 



THE BRENT GOOSE (Anser Irento). 



This species is still smaller than the last mentioned, and 

 less weighty in proportion to its lineal dimensions. It makes 

 its appearance in the winter, and frequents the humid mea- 

 dows on the estuaries of the rivers, especially upon the north- 

 west coast of England and the east of Ireland. It is, how- 

 ever, found over the whole range of those coasts and estuaries 

 that are much frequented by the other migrant geese. The 

 bill is short, and that and the feet are black ; though in the 

 young birds the latter are said to have a tinge of dull reddish 

 colour, and also to be without the white patch on the side of 

 the neck. The head, neck, and upper part of the breast, the 



* The barnade-goooe breeds in Iceland, Spitsbergen, Greenland, the 

 northern ].:irts of Russia mid Asia, on the shores of Hudson's Bay, and 

 in other polar districts of the American continent. M. 



