EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 33 



THE LESSER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 

 (Anser albifrons minutus.) 



Plate 12, Fig. 3. 



This is a small form of Anser albifrons, and is usually known 

 by the name of Anser erythropus of Linnaeus. Saunders and 

 Sharpe do not recognise its distinctness, but, to my mind, it is a 

 recognisable race, and Salvadori, the first authority of the day on 

 the subject, allows it full specific rank. It is smaller in size than 

 A. albifrons, and has a broader white forehead. It inhabits the 

 Palaearctic Region from Lapland to the Yenisei, visiting various 

 parts of Europe on migration as well as Japan and Northern 

 India. The egg is decidedly smaller than that of A. albifrons. 



THE BRENT GOOSE. 



(Anser brenta.)* 

 Plate 10, Fig. 1. 



The Brent Goose is a circumpolar bird, of which there are 

 two, if not three forms. The Pacific Brent Goose breeds from 

 the valley of the Lena, eastwards across Bering Straits as far 

 as the Rocky Mountains ; in the Taimur Peninsula, in Novaya 

 Zemlya, Franz-Josef Land, and Spitsbergen the typical Anser 

 brenta breeds; and in Arctic America, from the west coast of 

 Greenland as far west as the Parry Islands, and north of lat. 73°, 

 as far as land is known to extend, the white-bellied form of the 

 Brent Goose (Anser brenta glaucogaster) breeds; it has the under- 

 pays below the breast almost pure white, and the white on 

 the sides of the neck does not meet in front. Both the latter 

 races and intermediate forms between them occur on our coasts ; 

 but the white-bellied form is much the rarer of the two. Count 

 Salvadori finds intermediate specimens between them and unites 

 the two species. 



The nests found by Colonel Feilden in lat. 82^° on the 9th of 

 June were made on the sloping hill-sides between the snow line 

 and the sea ; they were placed in slight depressions on the ground, 



* Bernicla brenta— Saunders, Manual, p. 399 ; Branta bemicla— Sharpe, 

 Handb. II., p. 239. 



