Volltext Seite (XML)
ORD. III. GEN. X. GOOSE. •* SPE. VI. BRENT GOOSE. PI. 244. Anas Bernicla. Lin. Syft. I. p. 198. Le Cravant. Brif. Orn. VI. p. 304. This is a fmall fpecies, weighing fcarcely four pounds. The bill is of a dark lead colour, and not two inches long: the head, neck, and bread, of a leaden-coloured black: the middle of the neck is fpeckled with white, fo as to form a band: the back and wings are lead colour, mottled with black: wing coverts, nearly black, with pale edges: quills, black: tail feathers, the fame: the rump, and vent, white: bread, and belly, dull black: legs, black. The female, and alfo the young birds, want the white on the neck, and are of a more dingy coloured plumage. This fpecies frequents our fea-lhores early in the autumn, and, like the ber- nacle, lives modly on the falt-water. It is very plentiful in Ireland, where it is edeemed as a delicacy. It breeds in the northern parts of Scotland, the north of Europe, and America. Linnaeus has midakenly confounded it with the bernacle, and confidered the true bernaclc as the male of the white-fronted goofe.