﻿32 anatid*:. 



chiefly of sea-weeds that float on the surface, and marine 

 plants that grow on the sea-shore, about the swampy and 

 muddy grounds, that are alternately covered and uncovered by 

 the regular ebb and flow of the tides of the sea ; also of 

 insects that are washed up and found in abundance on the 

 weeds ; it devours also blades of young corn, and grasses of 

 divers kinds. 



It has already been observed, that the Brent Goose breeds 

 in very high northern latitudes ; very great numbers are known 

 to rear their young on the islands and shores of the Hudson's 

 Bay; but by far greater multitudes go still further towards the 

 North Pole, Spitzbergen, and the eastern borders and Isles 

 of Greenland. In Iceland few are observed to breed. 



Respecting the particulars of this species at the time of 

 breeding, the locality chosen, and the number of eggs, very 

 little is known ; we are, nevertheless, able to figure the egg of 

 the Brent Goose, having had a well-identified specimen in 

 our possession, from which the drawing was made. 



In Russia the Brent Goose is obtained in thousands, and 

 preserved by salting. A well known method of obtaining 

 water-fowl, by means of which great numbers of geese and 

 ducks are caught on our coasts, is by employing nets in the 

 shape of flues, like those used for catching fish; the flues are set 

 up across some favourite inlet, and behind them decoy birds 

 are kept, and the new comers being attracted by the decoy- 

 birds, are driven into the nets by means of trained dogs. 



The measurements of the adult male Brent Goose are 

 twenty-three to twenty-four inches in length ; its wing, from 

 the carpus to the tip, fourteen inches ; the bill is nineteen 

 lines long, ten lines deep at the base, and eight lines broad ; 

 the legs are two inches eight lines long in the tarsus ; the 

 middle toe two inches two lines. 



The colouring of the plumage is a dark slate-coloured 



