BRENT GEESE 75 



All facts respecting the distribution and plumage-variations 

 in Brent Geese so far as these are yet ascertained will be 

 found set out in full detail in M. Serge Alpheraky's fine 

 monograph, The Geese of Europe and Asia my copy of 

 which work I place most gladly at the disposal of your two 

 contributors. 



My own conclusions are as follows : That all the millions 

 of Brent Geese which in winter throng our British estuaries, 

 from the Cromarty and Dornoch Firths right round the east 

 coast to the Solent and equally those of Ireland are all 

 of European origin, bred in Spitsbergen, Kolguev, Nova 

 Zembla, or eastward thereof; or, alternatively, should any 

 Brents of American origin cross the Atlantic and herd with 

 these (though no evidence exists of such movement), that 

 there does not exist a human being who could discriminate 

 between the Transatlantic and the Cisatlantic individual. 



[Both A Hand-list of British Birds by Hartert, Jourdain, 

 Ticehurst, Witherby, and the List of British Birds by a Com- 

 mittee of the B.O.U. divided the light from the dark-bellied 

 Brent. Following their lead, we intended to differentiate the 

 forms in our Topographical Avifauna of Scotland : there now 

 appears to be considerable doubt as to whether these are 

 really two subspecies or only dimorphic forms. On reading 

 the above interesting paper by Mr Abel Chapman, we wrote 

 to ask Dr Hartert what his opinion was, and he replied 

 as follows : " I can only separate two forms of Brent Goose, 

 i.e., Branta bemicla bemicla and Branta bemicla nigricans. 

 Both forms " (i.e., light and dark-bellied) " breed together on 

 Spitsbergen and Kolguev, and also many intermediate ones. 

 The two supposed forms are also found together in the same 

 flocks in winter. These forms cannot therefore be subspecies 

 (i.e., geographical representatives). It is said (if true) that in 

 America all Brent Geese have light undersides, but these 

 light ones are indistinguishable from the light ones from 

 Europe, where they are as common as the dark ones. We 

 can therefore only say that two varieties (with intermediates) 

 occur in Europe, while in America only one is said to occur ; 

 but I am not so sure if the darker form would not be found 



