NATO UAL HISTORY . 
m 
of charge, to which the rest punctually attended, and they 
pursued their journey with renewed alacrity. Their flight 
is very regularly arranged ; they either go in a line, a-breast, 
or in two lines, joining in an angle in the middle. 
The bean goose is a bird of passage, and arrives in Lin- 
colnshire about autumn, and departs in May. It weighs 
about six pounds. The bill is smaller than in the preceding 
species. The head and neck are brown, the back and wings 
ash-colour, and the breast and belly dirty white. It feeds 
much on the young corn, beans, &c. whence its name. 
The barnacle differs in some respects from all these; being 
less than any of them, with a black bill, much shorter than 
any of the preceding. It is scarcely necessary to combat 
the idle error of this bird’s being bred from the shell stick- 
ing to ship’s bottoms; it is well known to be hatched 
from an egg, in the ordinary manner, and to differ in very 
few particulars from all the rest of its kind. The upper 
parts of the plumage are black, the forehead, chin, and all 
the under parts white. 
The brent goose is still less than the former, and not 
bigger than a Muscovy duck, except that the body is longer. 
Tlie head, neck, and upper part ot the breast, are black ; 
about the middle of the neck, on each side, are two small 
spots, or lines of white, which together appear like a ring. 
Both this and the preceding frequent our coasts in winter ; 
and in some seasons have been so numerous, on the coasts 
of Picardy, as to become a pest to the inhabitants. 
The tame duck is the most easily reared of all our domestic 
animals. The wild duck, or mallard, differs, in many re- 
spects, from the tame ; and in them there is a still greater 
variety than among the domestic kinds. 
The most obvious distinction between wild and tame 
ducks is in the colour of their feet ; those of the tame duck 
being black ; those of the wild duck yellow. The differ- 
ence between wild ducks among each other, arises as wel' 
from their size, as the nature of the place they feed in. Sea- 
diicks which feed in the salt-water, and dive much, have a 
broad bill, bending upwards, a large bind toe, and a long 
blunt tail. Pond-ducks, which feed in plashes, have a 
straight and narrow bill, a small bind toe, and a sharp 
pointed train. The former are called, by our decoy-men, 
foreign ducks ; the latter are supposed to be natives of 
England. In this tribe we may rank, as natives of Europe, 
the° Eider Duck, which is double the size of a common 
duck, with a black bill ; and the male of which is wholly 
white, except the crown of the head, the coverts of the 
wings, the belly, and tail which are black; the Velvet Duck. 
