

BERNICLE GOO&E.—Bernicla leucopsis. 



V-like form, the sharp angle being always forward. These flocks alight on fields and 

 cultivated grounds, and often commit sad ravages before they again take to wing. On 

 account of this habit the bird is called the Harvest Goose in France. 



The beak of this species is rather slender and pointed, and its colour is black with an 

 orange centre. The head and upper parts are brownish grey, the primaries are of a darker 

 hue, both tail-coverts are white, the throat and breast are greyish white, and the abdomen 

 is pure white. The length of the bird is about thirty-four inches. 



The Beknicle Goose is also found on our shores, and seems to prefer the western to 

 the eastern coasts. 



The name of Bernicle Goose is given to this bird because the olden voyagers thought 

 that it was produced from the common barnacle shell, and this notion had taken so 

 strong a hold of their minds that they published several engravings representing the bird 

 in various stages of its transformation. The positive manner in which they put forth 

 their declaration is very amusing. " What our eyes have seen, and hands have touched," 

 writes Gerard in his "Herbalist," "we shall declare. There is a small island in 

 Lancashire, called the Pile of Foulders, wherein are found the broken pieces of old and 

 bruised ships, some whereof have been cast thither by shipwracke, and also the trunks 

 and bodies with the branches of old and rotten trees, cast up there likewise ; wherein is 

 found a certain spume or froth, that in time breedeth into certain shels, in shape like 

 those of the muskle, but sharper pointed and of a whitish colour, wherein is contained 

 a thing, in form like a lace of silk finely woven as it were together, of a whitish colour ; 

 one end whereof is fastened into the inside of the shel, even as the fish of oisters and 

 muskles are ; the other end is made fast unto the belly of a rude masse or lumpe, which 

 in time commeth to the shape and form of a bird : when it is perfectly formed, the shel 

 gapeth open, and the first thing that appeareth is the foresaid lace or string ; next come 

 the legs of the bird hanging out, and as it groweth greater it openeth the shel by degrees, 

 till at length it is all come forth and hangeth only by the bill : in short space after it 

 commeth to full maturitie, and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers, and 



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