BRENT GOOSE. Ciass Tf: 
These birds frequent our coasts in the winter : 
in Lreland they are called Bernacles, and appear 
there in great quantities in August, and leave 
it in March. ‘They feed on a sort of long 
grass growing in the water; preferring the root 
and a portion of the stalk, which they dive for, 
bite off and leave the upper part to drive on 
shore. ‘They abound near Londonderry, Bel- 
fast, and Wexford, are taken in flight time 
in nets placed across the rivers, and are much 
esteemed for their delicacy. 
These birds migrate to most remote places to 
lay their eggs. They are found on the little 
isles on the coast of Greenland,* and again 
on those off Spitzbergen, where they were dis- 
covered on their nests in vast numbers in June 
21, 1596, by Barentz.t They appear in small 
flocks in Hoy Sound, in the Orknies, but do not 
continue there; on the contrary, they winter in 
flocks of two hundred in Horra Sound, in the 
Shetlands, and are called there Horra geese. 
The Rat or Roadgoose, of Mr. Willughby, 
p. 361, which at times has been known to fre- 
quent the Tees, agrees in so many respects with. 
this kind, that we suspect it to be a young 
bird not come to its full plumage: the only 
* Faun. Groenl. No. 41. 
+ Dutch Voyages, &c. 19. Arct. Zool. ii. 275. 
