Bernicle Goose. 465 



headed and darker-breasted congener the Brent, with which it is 

 often confused. Saunders says that, unlike the Gray Geese, 

 which feed in silence, these ' Black Geese,' as they are called, 

 both when feeding and when on the wing keep up a constant 

 cackling. I have already said that this is sometimes known as 

 the ' Land Bernicle/ and the Brent as the ' Sea Bernicle,' but 

 indeed both species are essentially dwellers on the sea, and rarely 

 come to dry land ; and it must have been an unusually severe 

 gale which could have driven so far inland the only three 

 specimens whose visit to Wiltshire I am able to chronicle, two 

 of which, I learn from Mr. Grant, were killed at Enford on 

 February 25, 1865, and the third, as Mr. Rawlence informs me, was 

 killed at Britford. In Sweden it is sometimes called the Hafre 

 Gos, or ' Oat Goose,' from its partiality for oat stubbles. It is 

 more generally known in that country as the Fjdll Gos, and 

 some few breed in the fjalls of Northern Scandinavia, but the 

 great bulk in the breeding season penetrate to the most northern 

 latitudes ; and Nordenskiold relates that, from the most northerly 

 point of Spitzbergen hitherto reached, vast flocks of this species 

 have been seen steering their course in rapid flight yet farther 

 towards the north a conclusive proof (so the walrus-hunters 

 affirm) of the existence of some land more northerly than 

 Spitzbergen.* In France it is Oie Bernache ; and in Germany, 

 Weisswangige Gans, ' White-cheeked Goose.' 



180. EGYPTIAN GOOSE (Anser Egyptiacus). 



I am indebted to my friend Colonel Ward, of Bannerdown 

 House, Bath, for an account of the occurrence of this very 

 handsome species in our county, two of which were killed at 

 Corsham Court some few years back, and were preserved by Mr. 

 Dangerfield, of Chippenham. They were in perfect plumage, 

 and had every appearance of being genuine wild birds, and 

 not (as has sometimes been the case with such stragglers) mere 

 semi-domesticated specimens which had escaped from some 

 ornamental water. The Rev. A. P. Morres says it is occasionally 

 ' Arctic Voyages,' 1858-1879, p. 53. 



30 



