412 BRENT GOOSE. 



numbers it nests in the Spitsbergen archipelago, Franz Josef Land, 

 Novaya Zemlya, Kolguev, and the coasts and islands of Arctic 

 Siberia ; near Kolguev, indeed, it must be abundant, judging from 

 Mr. Trevor-Battye's experiences. On the Pacific side of North 

 America its representative is B. nigricans, in which the white on the 

 neck forms a nearly complete collar, while the black extends to the 

 lower breast ; this is the species which visits Jap-'in. Throughout 

 Arctic America eastward of Alaska our bird is found ; though in 

 American examples the under parts are, as a rule, somewhat lighter 

 than in the majority of birds obtained in Novaya Zemlya &c. Both 

 of these forms visit the British Islands, but the darker usually— 

 though not invariably — predominates on the east coast south of the 

 Humber. Exceptionally the Brent has been taken in Central Europe. 



Col. Feilden describes a nest in Grinnell Land as composed of a 

 foundation of grass, moss and stems of saxifrage, with a warm bed 

 of down for the eggs, laid by June 21st and usually 4 in number, 

 smooth and creamy-white in colour: measurements 27 by i'8 in. 

 The Brent Goose is a day-feeder, searching on the ooze, or with 

 head and neck extended below the surface of the water in shallow 

 places, for aquatic plants and sea-ware, especially grass-wrack and 

 laver: whence the local names "Ware-Goose" and "Road-Goose," 

 i.e., Root-Goose. The call-note is a loud cronk or honk. 



The adult has the bill, head, throat, and neck black, except a 

 small white patch on each side of the last ; mantle brownish-black, 

 with paler edges, which in August, after the moult, are tinged with 

 rufous-brown ; quills, rump and tail black, tail-coverts white ; upper 

 breast black; lower breast and belly slate-grey: legs black (exception- 

 ally with a reddish tinge). Length 22 in.; wing 13 in. Females 

 are rather smaller than males. The young bird has little or no 

 white on the sides of the neck, and the colours are less contrasted. 



The Canada Goose, Bernicla canadensis, has been domesticated 

 in this country for more than two centuries, and stragglers are 

 occasionally shot out of the hundreds of unpinioned birds now in 

 existence ; but there is no evidence that wild American birds visit 

 us, and it is significant that occurrences in Ireland are far rarer than 

 in England. The Egyptian Goose, Chenalopex cegyptiaca, is another 

 introduced species, examples of which often wander and are killed ; 

 though in a wild state it is not known to cross the Mediterranean. 

 The Spur-winged Goose, Plectropterus ganibe?isis, was introduced 

 prior to 1678, and two examples have been killed in this country ; but 

 the species is not found wild in Africa north of the tropic of Cancer. 





