BRENT GEESE. 191^ 



The migrations of these Geese do not appear to extend 

 much beyond British waters. When shooting at Arcachon 

 some years ago, I was told they were sometimes numerous 

 there ; but I saw none myself, nor did I meet with them 

 during a winter's fowling on the north coasts of the Peninsula. 

 Their departure northwards in spring depends to a great 

 extent on the weather. In mild seasons it commences at the 

 end of February, and continues during the whole of March 

 and part of April. In 1883 (mild season) a part of the 

 Geese were seen to leave as early as February 20 ; the rest in 

 March. In the severe winter of 1879 my puntsman wrote 

 me on March 25, " There is still a great many Geese left, 

 but hardly so many as in February." 



In 1881, after an unusually severe and prolific season, he 

 wrote on March 17, " Part of the Geese left yesterday. They 

 were seen going about east, mounting higher in the air as 

 they went." (On the same date I read in the newspapers a 

 notice of the partial re-opening of the Baltic navigation.) 

 The rest of the Geese left that year on March 31. Some 

 linger on our coast till April or even May ; but, as above 

 stated, the bulk are gone by the end of March. Yet, though 

 they leave us in March, their breeding season in arctic lati- 

 tudes does not commence till late in June. Their course, on 

 leaving our shores, as observed by fishermen several miles 

 out at sea, is invariably east, or a trifle to the south of 

 east, pointing towards Denmark, which their instinct tells 

 them is the most northerly point which the state of the ice 

 at that period will permit. Thence they move on north- 

 wards by degrees. In 1886, on May 27 (just two months 

 after they had left this coast), I happened to observe a 

 migration of many thousands of Brent Geese when some 

 fifteen miles off the coast of Norway. They were then bound 

 due north, in all probability direct for Spitzbergen. Thus 

 they appear in spring to follow northwards the retiring ice- 

 edge as tenaciously as they retreat before it in autumn. 



Note. — The Bernicle Geese {Bernida leucofsis) I have never met 

 with. Though numerous on the Solway and west coast, they are 

 practically unknown on the east — whole decades elapsirg between 

 the chance visits of a few stragglers. 



