%34 BEAN GOOSE. Class II. 



and bluish at the nail and end of the lower man- 

 dible ; the base (in the male) is bounded by a 

 narrow bed of white feathers ; the head and neck 

 are cinereous brown, tinged with ferruginous; 

 the breast and belly dirty white, clouded with 

 cinereous; the sides and scapulars dark ash- 

 color, edged with white or rust color ; the back 

 the same; the coverts of the tail white; the 

 lesser coverts of the wings light grey, nearly 

 white, the middle of a deeper grey tipt with 

 white; the primaries and secondaries grey, tipt 

 with black 5 the feet and legs saffron color ; 

 the claws black. 



This species arrives in Lincolnshire in autumn, 

 and is called there the bean goose, from the likeness 

 of the nail of the bill to a horse bean. They al- 

 ways light on corn fields, and feed much on the 

 green wheat. They never breed in the fens, 

 but all disappear in Mai/, when they retreat 

 to the sequestred wilds of the north of Europe. 

 In their migration they fly to a great height, 

 cackling as they go, and preserve a great re- 

 ,^ ... gularity in their motions, sometimes forming 

 a strait line, at others assuming the shape of a 

 wedge, which facilitates their progress; for 

 they cut the air the readier in that form than 

 if they flew indiscriminately. 



