458 Anatidce. 



Edward Parry, who in his prolonged voyages in the Polar seas 

 had unlimited opportunities of marking the habits of the race 

 of Anseres. The Bean Goose is essentially an inland feeder, 

 frequenting marshes and meadows as well as cornfields by day, 

 and returning at dusk to mud-banks or sands where it can pass 

 the night in security. Sir R. Payne- Gall wey says, ' It is provided 

 with a most suitable bill for grazing, and can cut off wet soft 

 grass or young shoots as with a sharp pair of scissors/* It was 

 very generally supposed that the English specific name of this 

 goose was derived from the black nail at the extremity of the 

 beak, of about the size and appearance of a bean ; but Selby 

 pointed out that it was because of its partiality to bean or pea 

 fields, rather than from the shape of the nail of the upper 

 mandible that the bird was so named, and this is now generally 

 admitted. Cordeaux adds that beans being cut late in 

 autumn, more especially in wet and backward seasons, there is 

 always a considerable loss by the opening of the pods and shed- 

 ding of their contents : it is then that the geese arrive in 

 large flocks to feed on the scattered beans.-)- In corroboration of 

 this view the Swedish name for our Bean Goose is Sad Gas, 

 or ' Grain Goose ;' in Germany, Saat Gans ; and provincially in 

 some parts of France Qie des Moissons, or ' Harvest Goose ;' and 

 the recognised scientific name is A. segetum. In Continental 

 Europe generally it is by far the commonest of all the geese, and 

 is called in France Oie vulgaire, and in Italy Oca salvatica. 

 I conclude my notice of our commonest wild goose by a very 

 valuable extract from the writings of Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, who 

 from his personal experience is more entitled than any other to be 

 listened to on this subject. ' Geese (he says), like swans, are slow 

 in taking wing, either from land or water, and give more or less 

 notice of their intentions previous to flying. They stretch out 

 the neck, cackle loudly, run along the ground ere they can rise, 

 and beat the surface with their wings if on the water. They 

 always appear to have a sentry on duty, an outside bird, who, 



'The Fowler in Ireland,' pp. 145, 148. 

 t 'Birds of the Humber District,' p. 149. 



