462 Anatidce. 



suspicious nature, ready to take wing at the slightest alarm of 

 danger. Both, too, retire to breed in the Polar regions, Green- 

 land, Spitzbergen, and still farther towards the North Pole. 

 Captain Markham, in his narrative of the voyage of the Alert 

 during the Arctic Expedition of 1875-76, says the Brent Goose 

 was one of the very few birds met with in the high North, and 

 that in considerable numbers. As regards its edible qualities, I 

 was astonished to see the late Mr. Knox write, ' This is the best 

 bird I ever tasted/ and to find that verdict corroborated by Sir 

 R Payne-Gallwey, who places it first among the Geese, though 

 he somewhat qualifies that proud distinction by adding, ' But no 

 goose except a Brent, unless a very young bird, is fit to serve up 

 whole.' My own experience, and judging from the single 

 specimen of which I made trial in Norfolk thirty years ago, is 

 that it has a most villainous, rank, and fishy flavour. 



In France it is Ole Cravant ; in Germany, Eingel Gans ; in 

 Italy, Anatra Columbaccio ; in Sweden, Prut-Gas, from its con- 

 tinued murmuring cry when on the wing. 



I cannot forbear to call attention here to the monstrous popular 

 error which very generally prevailed regarding the origin of this 

 goose, sometimes called the ' Brent Bernicle,' as well as that of 

 the other Bernicle (A. leucopsis) ; and to this end I will quote 

 the story as related by an old writer of the time of Queen 

 Elizabeth :* ' There are found in the north parts of Scotland, 

 and the islands adiacent, called Orchades, certaine trees, 

 whereon do growe certaine shells of a white colour tending to 

 russet, wherein are contained little liuing creatures, which shells, 

 in time of maturity doe open, and out of them grow those little 

 liuing things, which falling into the water, do become fowlcs, 

 which we call barnacles ; in the north of England, brant geese ; 

 and in Lancashire tree geese : but the other that do fall vpon the 

 land, perish, and come to nothing. Thus much, by the writings 

 of others, and also from the mouthes of people of those parts, 

 which may very well accord with truth. 



' But what our eies haue seen, and hands haue touched, we 

 * Gerard's 'Herbal ; or, History of Plants,' p. 1588, edition 1636. ; 



