Illustrations of British Ornithology Volume 2 - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1833 edition. Excerpt: ...A. Brenta and A. Bernicla of the older naturalists as synonymous, a misapplication of the ap propriate specific names has arisen amongst succeeding writers, they having still continued the appellation Erythropus to the Bernicle, instead of giving it to its proper object. Tkmminck and Bechstein, who saw the impropriety of retaining a specific name so inapplicable to the species (whose legs and feet are black), instead of restoring that imposed by the predecessors of Linn.eus, gave it the new one of Leucopsis; and also neglected to transfer that of Erythropus to its real representative, the Anas albifrons of Gmelin and Latham. Dr Fleming, however, in his " History of British Animals," has now rectified these errors, and the Whitefronted and Bernicle Geese are each described under their appropriate titles of A. Erythropus and A. Bernicla.--The Bernicle is amongst the number of our winter visitants, an--nlTM nually resorting in vast numbers, upon the approach of autumn, to the western shores of Britain, and to the north of Ireland. Upon the Lancashire coast, the Solway Frith, &c. it is very abundant; frequenting the marshy grounds that are occasionally covered by the spring-tides, and such sands as produce the sea-grasses and plants upon which it feeds. Upon the eastern and southern shores of Britain it Food, is of rare occurrence, its place being supplied by its nearlyallied congener, the Brent Goose (Anser Brenla); which again is as rarely seen upon the opposite coast of the island. Like the rest of its genus, the Bernicle is a very wary bird, and can only be approached by the most cautious manoeuvres. It is sometimes shot by moonlight, when it comes on the sands to feed, by persons crouched on the ground, or from behind any...