196 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
all the rivers. * * *. The Geese have less and less feeding ground every yean.
There is hardly a place where they can sit at low water and feed far enough from
the edge not to be liable to be disturbed ; yet the Geese of late years come more
regularly than thirty or forty years ago. Then, in mild winters, we often saw
none, or next to none, through whole seasons. I know not why this is—perhaps
because, on account of a run of good breeding years, there are more of the birds,
or perhaps, as there is much less of the weed they eat, there may be less of it
adrift at sea—for the Geese used sometimes to remain all the winter without
coming within sight of land. * * * I will make one more remark about them :
They never go to sleep. Look at them when you will with a telescope, all day
they are wide awake, and all night they seem equally busy, whether you find
them near the land or go off to sea after them on a calm night. When far off
at sea, you may hear their noise the whole night, shifting its bearing with the
tide. 1 never saw, or heard of anyone seeing, a Brent Goose with its head on its
back, as if asleep [though] Ducks and Wigeon may often be seen in this position."
Barnacle Goose : Bernicla leucopsis.
A rather uncommon winter visitor, very much less abundant than
the Brent Goose.
Lindsey, writing from
Harwich in 1851, speaks
of it (27. App. 59) as "a
winter visitor here, ap-
pearing in considerable
flocks, particularly when
the weather is severe."
The Parsons Collection
contains one shot by Mr.
Parsons on New England
Island, on Dec. nth,
1830. In the winter of
1870-71 a few were seen
in the Thames estuary,
in company with Brent
Geese (Smee—34. 2605).
Mr. F, Spalding has two,
shot at Tollesbury in
January, 1887. Mr. Hope,
who has specimens shot
at Maldon in March,
1886, says it is " not un-
common in small lots."
Mr. Fitch remembers four
being shot out of one his ponds at Brick House, Maldon. Dr. Laver describes it as
rare in both the Colchester and the Paglesham districts, Mr. Pettitt has a couple
shot recently with two others at Dovercourt, and Mr. Hope writes: " On
June 16th [1889], four Barnacle Geese flew out of the Deben River [Suffolk], and
went southward across the Cork Sand, off Harwich. I have never seen these
birds at this time of the year before." Curiously enough, Mr. Fitch also tells
me that on the 26th of the same month he saw four Geese fly over the east end of
Canvey Island, on which they settled.
[Canada Goose : Bernicla canadensia.
An introduced North American species, which has been admitted