408 RED-BREASTED GOOSE. 



the nest in 70" 30' N. lat. on the Yenesei, along the banks of which 

 he afterwards saw adults with their broods ; while on the Boganida, 

 115° E. long., jNIiddendorff had long ago obtained the first authenti- 

 cated eggs, and as a straggler this species has occurred as far east 

 as Irkutsk. An important line of migration in autumn is between 

 the Aral and the Caspian, and on the latter, according to Dr. Radde, 

 large numbers are often caught in nets or shot on some grassy 

 islands near the south-western shore, during the winter. The 

 ancient Egyptians were acquainted with this handsome Goose, for it 

 is accurately portrayed in colours on the Maydoom slab already 

 mentioned (p. 400), and repeatedly, according to ]Mr. E. C. Taylor, 

 at Thebes. I have seen a specimen in the collection of the late 

 Lord Lilford, labelled by the late Mr. S. Stafford Allen "Alexandria, 

 December 2nd 1874," and skins said to be from Algeria were 

 offered for sale in 1SS4. Three examples have been obtained in 

 Italy, five or six in France, several in Holland, and a few in 

 Northern Germany, Denmark, and Sweden ; while in Russia the 

 bird is said to visit Archangel in spring and to pass through the 

 Central Provinces, in small numbers. 



On the Yenesei, in 1S95, Mr. H. L. Popham found four nests, 

 all placed at the foot of cliffs occupied by either a Peregrine or a 

 Rough-legged Buzzard (possibly for protection from foxes), and well 

 supplied with down; the 7-9 eggs being creamy-white : measurements, 

 279 by I "93 in. (Ibis 1897, p. 99). The call-note is syllabled by 

 Pallas as shak-voy, whence comes, according to Dr. Finsch, the local 

 name at Obdorsk. The food consists of grass and green vegetables, 

 and water is frequently taken. In a wild state this species is 

 exceedingly gregarious, and in confinement it is very tame and 

 sociable. A female, which lived in the Gardens of the Zoological 

 Society from 1S58 to 1870, paired with a Brent Goose, and, judging 

 by its skin, now in the British Museum, the plumage is as brilliant 

 in this sex as in the male. 



The adult has a white patch in front of the eye; the crown, 

 throat, hind-neck, and lower part of the breast black, bordered by 

 narrow lines of white ; ear-patches and breast rich chestnut ; upper 

 parts almost black, with greyish-white edges to the wing-coverts ; 

 tail black ; belly white, barred with black on the flanks ; bill, legs 

 and feet very dark brown. Length 21-22 in.; wing i4'5 in. In 

 the young bird the ear-patch is whitish, with rufous in the centre ; 

 the chest is merely tinged with reddish ; and the rest of the upper 

 and under parts are dusky-brown, except the abdomen and the tail- 

 coverts, which are white. 



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