BEAN GOOSE. 



25 



England than the redstart, and many other of the summer migrants. 

 * It is rare in Scotland. * We have observed it in several parts of 

 Cornwall, where the last-mentioned bird is rarely, if ever, seen : and it 

 is more common than that bird in the west of Devonshire. 



Willughby says it is found in Yorkshire, and called the beam-bird, 

 from its nesting under beams in out-buildings. He also calls it becca- 

 figo, or fig-eater. Mr. Pennant has considered Willughby's beam-bird 

 as the chiff-chaff (Sylvia hippolais J ; but his description, which is as 

 follows, by no means answers to that bird. " Less than the blackcap. 

 The inside of the mouth is red ; the head, neck, back, and wings, are of 

 an olivaceous ash colour : the quill-feathers darker, edged with olive ; 

 the inner coverts of the wings yellow : breast white, tinged with yellow : 

 the belly silvery white ; the tail dusky ; the legs bluish." 1 Most cer- 

 tainly this description does not correspond with either the fauvette, or 

 chiff-chaff. From the habit, we should be led to believe it to be the 

 beam-bird, ( Muscicapa grisola, Linnaeus,) which in some places is 

 called by the name of rafter, from its resting on, or under, rafters in 

 old buildings ; whereas the fauvette and chiff-chaff invariably repair to 

 woods and hedges for the purpose of nidification. 



* A correspondent of Loudon's Magazine of Natural History had a 

 nest of this bird brought to him, which he describes as follows : " It 

 was built upon a wooden rake, that was carelessly lying on the ground 

 in a cottage garden at Bransford, near Worcester ; in this nest the 

 female laid five eggs, and even sat on them, indifferent to any one pass- 

 ing in the garden, till the nest was taken by a boy belonging to the 

 cottage. The nest is carelessly put together, yet prettily constructed 

 of long green moss, intermixed with the catkins of the hazel, and 

 fibres, the interior lined with thin straw and wool ; eggs thickly spotted 

 with brown." * 



BEAN CRAKE.— A name for the Land Rail. 



BEAN GOOSE (Anserferus, Lister.) 



Anas segetum. — Gmel. Syst. 2. p. 512. — Ind. Oin. 2. p. 843. 28. — Temm, 

 Man. 820. — Rail Syn. 136. — Bean Goose. Br. Zool. 2. No. 267. t. 

 94. f. 2.— Arct. Zool. 2. No. 472. — Lath. Syn. 6. p. 464. 23. — Lewin, 

 Br. Birds, 7. t. 239. — Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 20. — Wale. Syn. 1. t. 65.— 

 Lister, Phil. Fram. 15. 1159.— Will. Orn. 214.—Flem. p. 126. 



Provincial. — Small Grey Goose. Common Wild Goose. 



This species, * which Linnaeus confounded with the Grey Lag,* is less 



than it, the weight being only from five pounds to upwards of seven ; 



length from two feet and a half to three feet. The bill is small, com- 



Br. Zoology, 149. 



