kept them to eat but they have hitherto been chiefly valued as embellishments to our ponds. Their small size renders them suitable even for a very limited pleasureground, and they are perhaps the very prettiest Geese that have yet appeared in our menageries. The lively combination of black, white, grey, and lavender, give them the appearance of a party of ladies robed in those becoming half-mourning dresses, that are worn from etiquette rather than sorrow. The female differs little from the male, being distinguished by voice and deportment more than by plumage. Their short bill, moderate sized webs of their feet, and rounded proportions, indicate an affinity to the Cereopsis. The number of eggs laid is six or seven; the time of incubation about a month, but it is difficult to name the exact period, from the uncertainty of knowing the precise hour when the process commences. The Geese are steady sitters. Their young had better be crammed with very small pegs for the first week or so, after which they may be entirely confided to their parents. They are lively and active little creatures, running hither and thither, and tugging at the blades of grass. Their ground colour is of a dirty white. Their legs, feet, eyes, and short stump of a bill, are black. They have a grey spot on the crown of the head, grey patches on the back and wings, and a yellowish tinge about the forepart of the head. The old birds are very gentle in their disposition and habits, and are less noisy than most other Geese. Waterton mentions an instance where the Gander paired with a Canada Goose, a most disproportionately large mate for him to select. The same thing has occurred in Norfolk, but in this case the ludicrous union was altogether unproductive.

The service they may render as weed-eaters should not be forgotten, though their size alone precludes any comparison of them with the Swan in this respect. Sir W. Jardine says that he has observed their feeding-grounds to be extensive merses or flats partially inundated by the higher tides, a circumstance that may furnish a hint

that their breeding may perhaps be promoted by their being furnished with a little sea-weed during winter and early spring. They are also sufficiently removed from the typical Geese to make it possible that a few cockles, limpets, shrimps, or small muscles would not be unwelA single pair would be more likely to breed than if they were congregated in larger numbers: and the price demanded by the London dealers is not extravagant for healthy living specimens.

come.

The young of the Bernicle Goose, like those of the Canada and White-fronted Geese, when left entirely to the guidance of their parents in this country, are apt to be attacked by a sort of erysipelatous inflammation of the head, similar to that from which the Domestic Fowl suffers so much, and which proves equally fatal. The eyelids swell till the bird is blinded; its sufferings must be extreme, even if it recovers. The parts affected discharge copiously a watery fluid. Frequent washing with warm water and vinegar is the best remedy, and cramming the bird to keep it alive, must be resorted to. Pills of rue leaves, or a strong decoction of rue, as a tonic, have been administered with apparent benefit. The disease seems epidemic rather than contagious, though I would not quite deny that it is so; but of all remedies warmth and dryness, particularly at night, are the most indispensable. Goslings hatched about midsummer in the Arctic regions know not what it is to feel the absence of the sun. A Scandinavian summer's night, even in those latitudes where the sun does sink for an hour beneath the horizon, differs from the day in little else than stillness. There are no frosts succeeding a broiling day, no chilling dews which require hours of sunshine to remove, but all is, for the time, perpetually bright and warm and genial. The difference between such a climate and an English May must be seriously felt by our tender little pets, whatever care we may take to protect them. This clear uninterrupted day, two or three months long, of settled delicious weather, gives a

complete explanation of the apparent paradox that birds should retire to the regions, reputed absolutely icy, of the North, for breeding purposes. But those who have made the precincts of the Mediterranean their Elysium on earth, can have no conception of the health, the vigour, the manly tone of mind and body, to be inspired from Hyperborean breezes.

Oh! that I had the wings of a Dove; then would I flee away with my little ones to the rich pine forests, the rushing streams, the deep-cut inlets of the far North, and be at rest, till the snow drifts of October made us again retreat, with the wild-fowl, to the temperate and hospitable shores of Britain !

THE BRENT GOOSE.

THIS, and the interesting little Sandwich Island Goose, are the smallest of their tribe yet introduced to our aquatic aviaries; both being inferior in size to some Ducks. The captive Brent Goose has not, that I am aware, bred in any British collection. According to Audubon, it has been known to produce young in captivity, but when, or where, or on what authority is not stated. To attain this result here, the most likely method is, probably, to make an approach to their natural habits by supplying them with occasional marine diet. Fragments of shells, that had apparently been swallowed whole, have often been. found in their gizzards. It might also be expedient to assemble them in a flock, instead of keeping just a single pair, so that they could consult their own individual tastes in the choice of partners. Their picturesque effect, too, will be greater in this way. Their almost uniform colour of leaden black, and their compactness of form, make them a striking feature in the scene, though they cannot be compared in beauty with many other waterfowl. They may always be obtained from the London dealers. There is so little difference in the sexes, that it is not easy to distinguish them. Their chief merit, however, rests in their fondness for water weeds, in which respect they appear to be second only to the Swan. On this account, Ware Goose is one of their trivial names.

"Brent Geese have the cunning, in general, to leave the mud as soon as the tide flows high enough to bear an enemy, and then go off to sea, and feed on the drifting weeds."-Colonel Hawker.

"On the north-eastern shores of England, where we have had opportunities of seeing them, they might be considered as entirely maritime, not being known to leave the water-mark, or ever to feed on the pastures or young

grain. During ebb-tide, they fed on the banks of Zostera marina, then uncovered; and Mr. Selby mentions the ulva latissima as very frequently found in their stomachs ; at other times they rest on the sandbanks, which are quite open, and afford no shelter for approach; or they ride, as it were, just off the land, buoyant upon the wave, and occasionally pluck the sea-grass or weeds which are yet borne up within their reach."-Sir W. Jardine.

Brent Geese are quiet, gentle, and harmless, in captivity. I cannot agree with those who praise them on the table. They are fishy, strong, and oily; but whoever is not fond of such savours, may convert the birds into tolerable meat, by having them skinned and baked in a pie. This bird has, most inexcusably, been confounded with the foregoing.