THE BRENT GOOSE. 53 



and when rotten is good manure for land : * and from tliis sweet grass 

 it is supposed proceeds the sweetness of their flesh ; they are taken 

 by nets set in proper places on the shores. 'Tis observable that the divers 

 and wigeons, which are very rank and unsavoury elsewhere, undergo 

 the same change of theii' flesh when they feed in this place" (p. 192). 



Harris, in his ' History of the county of Down ' {11 4-4:), says of the 

 " Barnacle, called by the English, Brant Goose," — " All along the flat 

 oozy sands, from Three-mile Water to Belfast and Holywood, grows a 

 very sweet grass affording food to great flocks of these birds, as well as 

 to duck, wigeon, and teal, all which are as good here as in any part 

 of Ireland, and some imagine them better than in the neighbouring 

 loughs of Strangford and Larne ; but this is only the effect of fancy, 

 for they often fly from one lough to another, and feed promiscuously. 



" They are birds of passage, and know their seasons so well that they 

 arrive every year in the north parts of Ireland, on or very near a cer- 

 tain day, that is, the first flights of them, for they do not always come 

 together. They are seldom seen sooner than the 34th of August, and 

 are rarely missed about tliat time. But they are not so regular in 

 their flights from this country, some going away in April, and some 

 staying till the middle of INIay. * * * After their young are 

 ready for a strong flight, they return to us, by which time they find 

 a new harvest of sea-grass ready for them here" (p. 234). 



Smith, in his ' History of the county of Waterford,' completed in 

 1745, speaks of — " Barnacles, which we have in plenty in winter, 

 being of as good a relish as at Londonderry, Wexford, or elsewhere ; 

 we have the same kind of grass described in the appendix to Boate's 

 ' Natural History of Ireland,' which it is said they feed upon, and 

 which gives them that peculiar sweetness in those places where this 

 grass is found. The roots of this grass are white and tender, and of 

 a sweetness resembling liquorice ; great quantities of it are often cast 

 up on the coast after a storm." 



In Mason's 'Statistical Account of Ireland' (vol. iii. p. 400), pub- 

 lished in 1819, the following notice of wild-fowl appears in a history 

 of the 'Union of Tacumshane [county of Wexford], by the Bev. Wra. 



* This plant, the grass-wrack {Zostera marina), or slcech-grass of Belfast Bay, is 

 still used most extensively as manure by farmers, both poor and rich, who are little 

 aware how much they are indebted to the brent geese, wigeon, and otlur wild-fowl, 

 for rooting it up. Partaking themselves of but a small portion of the plant, these 

 birds let the remainder float off to the shore, wliere it is appropriated by num to his use. 



