423 

 RED-BREASTED GOOSE. 



Bernicia ruficollis {Pallas). 



Accidental visitant from northern Asia, of extremely rare occurrence. 



Writing of this handsome Goose, Marmaduke Tunstall 

 of Wychffe-on-Tees observed : " Have a beautiful specimen 

 of this scarce species .... Shot in the severe frost in 1776, 

 near London. . . . Never heard, I think, but of two more 

 seen in England. One was taken alive in this neighbourhood 

 [Wycliffe], and is still living.— (P.S.— Was the property of 

 a lady lately deceased.) — It is kept in a pond with some ducks 

 of the wild breed, with which it is very sociable, but never 

 produces any breed together, though there is one it particularly 

 associates with and seems to be partial to. It is very tame 

 and familiar." (Tunst. MS. 1784, pp. 96, 97.) George Allan, 

 later (Fox's " Synopsis," p. 212), referring to this specimen, 

 quoted Latham's account in which there is an error as to 

 the date of its capture, 1766, instead of 1776, and this error 

 was repeated in 1844 by Thomas Allis, who wrote : — 



Anser ruficollis. — Red-breasted Goose — W. Yarrell in his " British 

 Birds" reports that one was captured alive in Yorkshire about 1766, 

 soon became tame, and was kept with some ducks in a pond ; this 

 is the only specimen I have noticed. 



J. Hogg, in his " Catalogue of Birds of S.E. Durham and 

 N.W. Cleveland " {Zool. 1845, p. 1178), stated that two of 

 these birds were seen " of late years by the Tees." One was 

 afterwards shot by Mr. J. Hikeley. I understand, however, 

 that this record referred to the Durham side of the estuary. 



BERNACLE GOOSE. 



Bernicia leucopsis {Bechsteiti). 



Winter visitant, of irregular occurrence on the coast ; has occa- 

 sionally been observed inland. 



The earliest known reference to this Goose as a Yorkshire 

 bird occurs in Willughby's " Ornithology " (1678, pp. 359. 360), 



VOL. II. E 



