236 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



1886-87, when I was absent from Cumberland, the Bean Goose 

 has constantly come under my notice. Indeed I have rarely 

 visited the Upper Solway without observing the Bean Geese, 

 which usually spend the day upon the most exposed portions of 

 the marsh and sands of the estuary. They are, of course, highly 

 sociable. At the beginning of winter it is not unusual to see 

 an odd bird, but they generally pack and live gregariously in 

 larger or smaller flocks. On a recent occasion Mr. Thorpe and 

 I were waiting for duck at the edge of Burgh marsh, when a 

 Bean Goose flew up and alighted within a hundred or a hundred 

 and twenty yards of us, and there remained on the open marsh 

 until a chance movement roused its suspicions. I have occasion- 

 ally known single birds to fly overhead within shot, but only 

 when our party happened to be without a gun. As a rule they 

 are very wary. They scarcely ever allow a punt to work up to 

 them, and are chiefly shot when they are feeding in the evening 

 or early morning. Much of their food consists of the marsh 

 grasses, but they feed also in stubble-fields and marshy meadows, 

 as, for example, in the neighbourhood of Allonby. Bean Geese 

 were never more strongly represented with us than during the 

 winter 1890-91, when intense frost prevailed in the south of 

 England and on the Continent. In January we visited the 

 meadows frequented by these Geese near Allonby, and found 

 plenty of evidence of their presence in the shape of feathers 

 and of the droppings which so often reveal their being in the 

 vicinity, even when not seen. The spots which they chiefly 

 frequent are rushy and wet ; in fact, they like the swampiest 

 portions of reclaimed lands and the edges of open drains ; they 

 feed chiefly in the evening and early morning, resting during the 

 day on quiet mosses where they are not pursued, or on the salt 

 marshes. They show a strong affection for particular spots. In 

 the winter 1890-91, many Bean Geese haunted some rough and 

 wet ground on the Eden a short distance from Carlisle; we 

 examined two that were shot, so that there could be no question 

 as to the species. As a rule, those which frequent our marshes 

 seldom seem to wander more than five or six miles inland. They 

 are more often shot by the farmers than by regular gunners, and 

 from their habit of feeding together, it often happens that more 



