THE BEAN GOOSE. 35 



of grallatorial, as well as natatorial birds, occasionally fly in 

 wedge-shaped flocks, one side of which is, however, usually longer 

 than the other. 



The birds seen early, flying southwards, have been rarely 

 known to alight in the neighbourhood of Belfast Bay or Strang- 

 ford Lough, as those coming later occasionally do. This is an 

 illustration of what has always seemed to me the general law 

 with regard to birds breeding in high latitudes and moving- 

 southward for the winter, namely, that those which appear 

 earliest proceed farthest to the south ; and those wliich arrive 

 latest, if belonging to species that remain at all, are the indi- 

 viduals which continue with us during the winter. 



Prom November until Marct the bean goose, of all ages, is 

 occasionally brought to Belfast market. 



On the 12th of Februaiy, 1 838, the finest specimen that I had seen came under my in- 

 spection at a bird-preserver's. Its weight was 8 lbs. 10 oz. The measurements, taken 

 before it was skinned, were: — Entii-e length, 33 inches; wing, from carjras to end 

 of quills, 19i in. : tarsus, 3^ in. ; bill, from centre of forehead to point, 2 in. 

 5 lines ; from rictus to point, 2^ inches. Upper part of nail of the bill white ; a 

 central stripe, of the same colour, on the nail of the lower mandible ; on part of the 

 nails of the middle toes a whitish tinge ; nails of outer and inner toes of both feet 

 white and pale horn-colour ; bill and toe-nails otherwise colom-ed as usual.* 

 Plumage at base of forehead, for an inch in length, and a quarter of an inch in 

 breadth, white, a little of which colour also appears on each side, from the middle 

 portion of the upper mandible : tliis white at the base and sides of the biU, according 

 to Temminck, marks the young birds. Wings pass the tail about half an inch. 

 Mr. Jenyns observes (p. 223), that when the naQ of the bill is white, &c., it is 

 extremely difficult to distinguish J. segetum from A. ferus ; but his own good 

 description, notwithstanding, instantly proved this to be the former species, by the 

 colour of the bill generally, orange legs, and wings passing the tail. With respect 

 to the bean geese, of which the bills are figm-ed by Sir Wm. Jardine (Bnt. Birds, 

 vol. iv. p. 66), aU the hirds which have come under my examination in Belfast and 

 Dublin agreed, in the form and size of bill, with his No. 2, as in pliunage, four of 

 the specimens looked to critically, also did, except in the trivial diflerence that the 

 greater coverts of the wing were greyish-brown of a more uniform tint throughout, 

 than the other feathers of the upper surface of the wing. 



* I have observed that the ordinai-y colour of the nail at the extremity of the 

 bin, and of the toe-nails, of A. segetum, is bhick, while that of A. albifrons is 

 white; but these colours arc not always constant to either species. Of this fact 

 Montagu shows us that he was aware at the time of writing the Appendix to his 

 Supplemcjit of the Ornithological Dictionary. 



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