142 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



paratively short and strong ; the lamellae hardly deserve that name, being short, broad at 

 base, tooth-like, and altogether adapted to the grazing habits of these birds. The body 

 is stout, and the legs placed near the equilibrium, so as to make the movements on land 

 less awkward than in most ducks. The plumage of the neck is rather peculiar, the 

 feathers being narrow and arranged in oblique series into moi'e or less conspicuous ridges 

 and grooves. The two cuts represent two of the most important genera, the gray-lag 

 being the type of A.nser proper, the land-geese, while the common brant (JSranta ber- 

 nicla) shows the chief characters of the sea-geese, which feed particularly on the sea- 

 grass. The gray-lag goose (which, by the way, is the wild stock of the domesticated 

 goose) and its allies are restricted to the boreal regions, while the bernicle geese are 

 equally well represented in the southern hemisphere, particularly in antarctic South 



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FIG. 68. Branta bernicla, common brant. 



America, where several handsome species, peculiar by the metallic reflections of the 

 wing speculum, have their home. 



One of these, Chlcephaga melanoptera, inhabits the high Andes of Peru and Boli- 

 via, as high up as 14,000 feet above the sea-level, and has not been met with south of 35 

 south latitude. It descends in winter to the plains, but retires in summer to the high 

 Cordillera, to the verge of the line of perpetual snow. Another beautiful species is 

 the emperor-goose (Philacte canagicci), from islands in Bering's Sea and Alaska. Be- 

 sides these there are numerous other kinds, of which we can only mention the names, 

 the red-breasted brant (Eufibrenta ruficollis), from eastern Siberia, the barred-headed 

 goose (Eulabeia indicci), from India, the swan-goose (Cygnopsis cygnoides), from 

 China, the Hawkesbury bernicle ( Chlamydochen jubata), from Australia, etc. We 

 will have to stop a moment, however, to consider a genus, containing only a few 

 diminutive species of geese, the so-called goslets (Nettepus), of which representatives 



