82 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



and in Shetland Mr. Saxby only once met with it. On the west coast of Scotland, 

 however, the case is very different, for in many localities— the Inner and Outer 

 Hebrides, the Sound of Harris, and other places— it is most abundant. It visits 

 the Solway regularly in some numbers, also the coast of Cumberland and Lancashire ; 

 it appears on the Welsh coast, not unfrequently, as Mr. Haigh informs me, 

 in severe weather, in flocks of ten to thirty, resorting to the marshes and sides 

 of rivers ; and Mr. Rodd says, occurs in Cornwall in very severe winters, in small 

 flocks. 



In Ireland it is very common in some parts, chiefly the north and north-west, 

 and equally scarce in others. It is known as the Land Bemacle, in distinction 

 with the Sea Bernacle, the Brent Goose ; in other places the latter is the Norway 

 Bernacle, and the former Wexford Bernacle. The Brent often passes for the 

 other in the game market, through the ignorance of the purchaser. 



The chief nesting quarters of the Bemacle are unknown and undiscovered; 

 probably the great bulk of the flocks which pass northward in the spring go, like 

 the Knot, to lands on the American side of the Pole. It is a regular autumn 

 visitor to South Greenland ; and occurs in Iceland, Spitsbergen, and Novaya Zemlya 

 in the breeding season, and also a few nesting in one locality on Kolguev. In 

 the autumn it passes through Scandinavia on migration, and also is seen at 

 Archangel, but is rare there. It has only twice occurred in Heligoland in fifty 

 years. It is known as a spring and autumn migrant at Fseroe. According to 

 Prof. Collett, a pair have bred regularly for some years on one of the Loffoden 

 Islands, from which the proprietor once forwarded him two eggs. A nestling in 

 down was sent from Greenland to the Museum at Copenhagen. In the winter 

 it is found on the opposite shores of the Continent and single examples have 

 wandered as far south as Spain and Italy. It is only a chance visitor to North. 

 America. 



The food of the Bemacle- Goose is both vegetable and animal, it is remarkably 

 fond of the short sweet grasses which cover the holms and islets off the western 

 coasts of Scotland, at low water also resorting to saltings, fitties, mud flats, and 

 foreshores, left uncovered by the sea, and is as much a land feeder as its con- 

 gener, the Brent, is a sea-Goose. Mr. C. M. Adamson, of North Jesmond, had 

 some tame Bemacles which in the spring would eat worms, an exceptional diet. 



The late Mr. Robert Gray says it " is a very common bird in the west of 

 Scotland, and especially abundant in the Outer Hebrides, where it arrives early 

 in October. Being a strictly migratory species, it takes its departure about the 

 end of April or beginning of May, by which time the Grey Lag- Goose has com- 

 menced laying. Previous to leaving, the Bemacle-Geese assemble in immense 



