[Illustration]
This species differs very little in its general appearance from the grey
lag goose, the chief distinction between them being in the bill; which
in this is small, much compressed near the end, whitish, and sometimes
of a pale red in the middle, and black at the base and nail: the latter
is shaped somewhat like a horse-bean, from which it has obtained the
name of Bean Goose.
These birds arrive in the fen counties in the autumn, and take their
departure in May. They are said to alight in the corn-fields, and to
feed much upon the green wheat while they remain in England.
They are reported to breed in great numbers in the Isle of Lewis, and no
doubt on others of the Hebrides, and also at Hudson’s Bay.—_Bewick._
BEAR, _s._ A rough savage animal.