THE BEAN GOOSE. 
35 
of grallatorial, as well as natatorial birds, occasionally fly in 
wedge-shaped flocks, one side of which is, however, usually longer 
than the other. 
The birds seen early, flying southwards, have been rarely 
known to alight in the neighbourhood of Belfast Bay or Strang- 
ford Lough, as those coming later occasionally do. This is an 
illustration of what has always seemed to me the general law 
with regard to birds breeding in high latitudes and moving 
southward for the winter, namely, that those which appear 
earliest proceed farthest to the south; and those which arrive 
latest, if belonging to species that remain at all, are the indi- 
viduals which continue with us during the winter. 
From November until March the bean goose, of all ages, is 
occasionally brought to Belfast market. 
On the 12th of February, 1838, the finest specimen that I had seen came under my in- 
spection at a bird-preserver’s. Its weight was 8 lbs. 10 oz. The measurements, taken 
before it was skinned, were : — Entire length, 33 inches ; wing, from carpus to end 
of quills, 19^ in. : tarsus, 3|- in. ; bill, from centre of forehead to point, 2 in. 
5 lines ; from rictus to point, 2-| inches. Upper part of nail of the hill white ; a 
central stripe, of the same colour, on the nail of the lower mandible ; on part of the 
nails of the middle toes a whitish tinge ; nails of outer and inner toes of both feet 
white and pale horn-colour ; hill and toe-nails otherwise coloured as usual.* 
Plumage at base of forehead, for an inch in length, and a quarter of an inch in 
breadth, white, a little of which colour also appears on each side, from the middle 
portion of the upper mandible : this white at the base and sides of the bill, according 
to Temminck, marks the young birds. Wings pass the tail about half an inch. 
Mr. Jenyns observes (p. 223), that when the nail of the bill is white, &c., it is 
extremely difficult to distinguish A. segetum from A. ferus ; but his own good 
description, notwithstanding, instantly proved thi3 to be the former species, by the 
colour of the bill generally, orange legs, and wings passing the tail. With respect 
to the bean geese, of which the bills are figured by Sir Wm. Jardine (Brit. Birds, 
vol. iv. p. 66), all the birds which have come under my examination in Belfast and 
Dublin agreed, in the form and size of bill, with his No. 2, as in plumage, four of 
the specimens looked to critically, also did, except in the trivial difference that the 
greater coverts of the wing were greyish-brown of a more uniform tint throughout, 
than the other feathers of the upper surface of the wing. 
* I have observed that the ordinary colour of the nail at the extremity of the 
bill, and of the toe-nails, of A. segetum, is black, while that of A. albifrons is 
white ; but these colours are not always constant to either species. Of this fact 
Montagu shows us that he was aware at the time of writing the Appendix to his 
Supplement of the Ornithological Dictionary. 
D 2 
