33 
THE BEAN GOOSE. 
Anser segetum, Gmel. (sp.) 
Anas ,, ,, 
Is a regular winter visitant. 
This is the wild goose, and the bird to whose English name Anser 
ferus is often affixed, although this term applies to an entirely 
different species ; — to the true grey lag. 
The bean goose remains during the winter in suitable localities 
throughout the island. About Belfast, with its highly culti- 
vated neighbourhood, little is known of it, except as a passing 
visitant. 
On the 12th of March, 1846, a flock of ten (their species 
ascertained by means of a telescope) was seen by an ornithological 
friend on the north-west side of Devis mountain, behind the 
town. They were sprung several times, at the height of from 
800 to 1,000 feet, and an unsuccessful shot was fired at them ; but 
instead of leaving the mountain, they merely alighted again at 
an elevated marshy part of it. They were said to have frequented 
the place during the winter. At the bog-meadows, within two 
miles of Belfast, flocks of bean geese occasionally alight, and 
remain for some days ; but persecution soon drives them away. 
A couple, shot there from a flock of twelve birds, so late as the 
18th of March (1841), were brought to me. 
A relative noted (Dec. 2, .1832) that he saw, through his tele- 
scope, a flock of fifteen wild geese feeding in the bog-meadows, 
apparently on grass. During an hour that he and a companion 
observed them, they all continued feeding but one, which, acting 
as sentinel, would look around for a little time, and, if no cause 
for alarm appeared, would begin to feed. Another bird then 
played a similar part, so that one of the flock always kept on the 
watch. 
At the King^s Moss, a few miles distant from the town just 
named, a flock of six bean geese was met with by snipe-shooters, 
on the 4th of Dec., 1849, and one of them killed with snipe- shot 
VOL. III. 
D 
