248 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



a severe frost. Johannes Cams, to whom we probably owe our 

 earliest account of the Barnacle Goose as a British bird, tells us : 

 ' Gregalis avis est et garrula. Ex pisce vivit, frequens apud 

 nos per littora in Britannia.' 1 Though this early author was 

 incorrectly informed as to the food of this Goose, his description 

 of the bird as noisy and as gregarious is very apt. Single birds 

 are rarely seen, and the chorus of a flock of Barnacles in full 

 cry can be heard at a surprising distance. These Geese frequent 

 the salt marshes of the English Solway during at least seven 

 months of the year, but they are very local in their choice of 

 feeding-grounds. Two conditions are necessary to secure their 

 constantly frequenting any locality, viz., a supply of young grass, 

 such as grows on newly-forming marsh land, and a fair security 

 that they will not be much interfered with during the hours of 

 daylight. RocklhTe marsh was formerly their most favourite 

 haunt, but, since 1888, they have preferred the salt marshes of 

 the Wampool and Waver estuary, where they are rather less 

 disturbed. Probably they would feed during the day, if it were 

 possible to do so with absolute safety — indeed, they do feed a 

 good deal during daylight upon their first arrival in autumn, 

 after which, most of their food is obtained between the evening 

 and early morning. Their arrival varies rather more than might 

 be expected from T. C. Heysham's remark. In 1885 the first 

 Barnacles were seen on our coast near Allonby upon the 1st of 

 October. In 1886 a party of them arrived at Rockliffe on the 

 11th of October, which station was visited by the same birds on 

 the 24th of September 1887. In 1888 the first Barnacles were 

 shot on the 22d of October. In 1889 they arrived on September 

 27th, though I did not meet with them myself until a fortnight 

 later. In 1890 Mr. H. Leavers and two friends saw an odd 

 Barnacle on the Esk on the 25th of September, but it was only 

 on the 9 th of October that Mr. Nicol shot his first Barnacles of 

 the season out of a flock of several hundred birds newly arrived 

 on the Wampool and Waver estuary. In 1891, between two and 

 five hundred birds arrived on Long Newton Marsh on September 

 28. Two were shot near Allonby on the 30th. About the 

 10th of October 1890 Mr. Tom Duckworth saw a flock of these 

 1 De variorum animalium et avium stirpibus, 1570. 



