BIRDS 237 



than one are killed at a shot. Upon Bockliffe marsh I have 

 seen a hundred birds together, but they chiefly consort in 

 gaggles of from five or six to thirty ; sometimes an odd bird, 

 perhaps one that has been pricked with shot, frequents a parti- 

 cular spot in self-chosen isolation for several weeks. They are 

 birds of powerful flight, and any one who compares the sternum 

 of the wild Bean Goose with that of a farm-yard bird, cannot 

 fail to be impressed by the degeneration of the latter. The 

 plumage of Bean Geese is very dense, and even when hard hit 

 they often fly considerable distances before they fall. They often 

 prolong their sojourn upon the Sol way marshes into the begin- 

 ning of summer. It is not known whether the flocks of Geese 

 which visit the centre and west of the Lake district belong ex- 

 clusively to this species ; but I am strongly of opinion that most 

 of the numerous notices of Geese seen in the interior of Lakeland 

 relate to Bean Geese. At all events, this species has been identi- 

 fied at Alston, near Keswick, Cockermouth, and as far south on 

 our coast as Bootle. But the comparative abundance of these 

 Geese in the neighbourhood of the Solway is probably to be 

 accounted for by the fact that this district lies in the line of their 

 migration. Journeying from Eastern Europe to winter in Ireland, 

 which is understood to be a great stronghold of this species, the 

 Geese pass over the Lake district, some visiting Windermere and 

 other lakes in their journey westward, and the larger proportion 

 passing through the west of Cumberland to reach the Irish 

 Channel. The Messrs. Mann have for many years noticed the 

 passage of these birds in late autumn and early spring, the 

 Geese travelling westward in November, to return in spring in 

 an easterly direction. I have often seen them coming from 

 across the Pennine fells at the former season. The Carlisle 

 Patriot of March 11, 1842, tells us that on the 8th of that month 

 a very large flock of wild Geese were seen passing over Cocker- 

 mouth, making a tremendous noise, and that another large party 

 passed over Bootle on the morning of the 6th, ' making in an 

 easterly direction.' The same journal records that a flock of sixty 

 wild Geese passed over Stainton and Stanwix, ' taking an easterly 

 direction,' on March 21, 1843. The Carlisle Journal of December 

 30, 1870, alludes to large flocks of Geese seen on the west coast 



