Brent Goose. 461 



however, a straggler wanders out of its course, and I have several 

 instances of its occurrence near Salisbury, near Corsham, and 

 near Calne ; and of later date Mr. W. F. Parsons, of Hunt's Mill, 

 Wootton Bassett, wrote me word that a specimen was killed 

 about the middle of February, 1870, during the very severe frost, 

 by Mr. Isaac Tuck, of Greenhill. He found it in the brook on 

 his farm known as the Upper Avon, when the weather was un- 

 usually cold. The Rev. A. P. Morres also records one now in his 

 collection, which was killed in his own parish of Britford, in 

 April, 1884 ; and I am informed by the Rev. J. Hodgson that 

 two handsome specimens have been shot in the meadows of 

 Collingbourne : one in the winter of 1881-82. by Mr. Pike, of 

 Hougoumont Farm ; the other in the spring of this year (1887), 

 by Mr. Russ' bailiff. Mr. Grant also records a specimen killed 

 at West Lavington in October, 1881. 



Its beak is very short, and, like the general colour of its 

 plumage, quite black. Indeed, with the exception of a small 

 patch of white on either side of the neck, and the tail coverts, 

 which are also white, its plumage is either slate-gray or smoke- 

 black. It is said to have derived its English name ' Brent ' from 

 its 'burnt' or generally charred appearance; and its scientific 

 name torquatus from the ' collar ' of white feathers on the neck. 

 Montagu calls it the ' Clatter Goose,' from the constant chattering 

 it keeps up while feeding ; wherein it differs from the Gray Geese, 

 which feed in silence. Selby calls it the ' Ware Goose/ from the 

 marine vegetabfes which constitute its food ; and for the same 

 reason it is known as Rotgans, ' Rot/ and ' Road Goose,' with 

 the meaning of ' Root Goose.' It is strange that whereas the 

 Brent Geese, sometimes called ' Sea Bernicles/ frequent the 

 muddy shores of the south and especially the east coasts of 

 England, where they occur at times in enormous numbers, the 

 true Bernicle Geese, known as ' Land Bernicles/ are seldom seen 

 there, but inhabit the west coast, where Brent Geese are almost 

 unknown ; so rigidly do these closely allied Black Geese keep to 

 their several localities. They are both winter migrants, arriving 

 here in the autumn from the North ; and are both of shy, 



