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BEENICLE GOOSE. 



BEENACLE GOOSE. BAENICLE GOOSE. •WHITE-FACED BERNICLE. 

 NORWAY BERNICLE. LAND BARNACLE. 



Anser leucopsis, ..... Jenyks. 



Amer hernicla, ...... FLEiuua. 



Anas erythropics, ..... Pendant. 



Oie bernache, ...... Temminck. 



Amer — A Goose. Leucopsis. Leukos — 'White. Ops — The face. 



This remarkably handsome Goose has been the subject of strange fancies on the part 

 of the ignorant or imaginative of former days; we have not space for all the curious 

 legends respecting them, and must content ourselves with stating that books were 

 written, and illustrated by engravings, to prove that a certain sort of willow tree, 

 especially those growing in the island of Pomona, one of the Orkneys, gave origin to 

 the Bernicle Goose, by producing swellings at the ends of the branches, which, in due 

 time, grew into these birds. Gesner and Aldrovandus, together with Bishop Leslie and 

 Olaus Magnus, may be named as authors who espoused this strange fable, and wrote 

 in its support. Others ridiculed this notion, and asserted that these birds derived their 

 origin from certain sea-worms which were observed in timber that had been long 

 floating about in the ocean. TVe need not, however, give all the details which were 

 advanced in support of this curious fancy; and we shall therefore at once proceed to 

 mention those points in the history of this fine bird, which have been ascertained by 

 naturalists more modern than those we have just been alluding to. 



The Bernicle Goose is only a winter visitor to these islands, arriving during severe 

 frost from the high northern latitudes, in which it breeds. It seems to frequent 

 the western coasts in preference to the eastern, where it is only very casually seen. 

 It has been procured in Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Norfolk, Northumberland, 

 Oxfordshire, Sussex, Lancashire, and Yorkshire. With respect to its occurrence in the 

 last-named county, we are informed by T. S. Budd, Esq., of Bedcar, that a fine 

 specimen of the Bernicle Goose was shot in Coatham Marsh, on the 1st. of October, 



