THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 525 



and more of these birds are commonly met with swimming or drifting 

 iibout on the sea. Smaller companies of from five to ten may be 

 seen at high tide, Avhen the sea is calm, swimming about close to 

 the foot of the cliff, picking off the small molluscs, crustaceans, etc. 

 found attached to the rocks there. 



The breeding zone of this species lies very far to the north, 

 extending from the northern parts of Greenland across Spitzbergcn, 

 Franz-Joseph Land, Nova Zembla, the Taimyr Peninsula, east- 

 wards to Grinnell Land, where Captain Feilden found it nesting as 

 far as lat. 82° 33' N. 



321.— Bernacle Goose [Weisswaxgige Gans]. 



ANSER LEUCOPSIS, Bechstein.i 



Anser leucopsis. Naumann, xi. 378. 



Bernacle Goose. Dresser, vi. 397. 



Oie bernache. Temminck, Manuel, ii. 823, iv. 520. 



This pretty little Goose is of very rare occurrence on Heligo- 

 land. So far as I remember, only two examples have been killed 

 within the last fifty years, one of which, a handsome old bird, is 

 preserved in my collection. Clans Aeuckens insists on sometimes 

 having seen small flights of this Goose passing over the island 

 during the spring migrations, though 1 myself have never ex- 

 perienced anything of the kind. 



The nesting stations of this species have not been reached, up to 

 the present time. They appear to bo situated within the highest 

 Polar areas, for the bird has been met with at the migration 

 periods in Greenland, Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. 



Buck — Anas. — In the number of its species this genus exceeds 

 every other among birds. The majority of species also are remark- 

 ably rich in numbers of individuals, and are distributed over all 

 parts of the earth ; even little Heligoland being visited by no less 

 than twenty species, and in the case of some of these, at times in 

 incredible numbers. For a long time now, and on many sides, 

 attempts have been made to raise each of the different forms in 

 which these birds present themselves to the dignity of a separate 

 genus, so that now there are almost as many genera as there used 

 to be species. I myself, however, have preferred to follow in this, 

 as in many other cases, the older nomenclature of my great master, 

 Naumann. 



' Bernida leucopsis (Bechst. ). 



