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THE


Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



Third Series.— Yol. YIII.—No. 8.— All rights reserved. JUNE, 1917.



THE RED-BREASTED GOOSE (Bermcla

ruftcollis ).


H. D. Astley.


This goose, which may be said to be the most handsome of

the genus, is only known as a rare straggler in Europe, except in the

extreme east, but it breeds in Northern Siberia. Several individuals

have been killed in Great Britain from time to time. It is of rare

occurrence, even in Sweden.


It breeds in Northern Asia, but not much seems to be known

about it in a wild state. Mr. Seebohm records (‘ Ibis,’ 1879, p. 159),

in his notes on the ornithology of Siberia, that two mates belonging

to Capt. Schwanenberg’s wrecked schooner, whom he had chartered

to collect eggs, were fortunate enough to come suddenly upon a Red¬

breasted goose on her nest on an island in the Yen-e-say on July 1st,

which bird they shot before she flew off, and “ unfortunately broke

one of the two eggs upon which she was sitting.” (Collectors seem

to have no mercy. To shoot a brooding bird seems to us ignoble.—

Ed.) Mr. Seebohm saw several of these handsome geese on

July 28th of the same year, which were on the banks of the river

Yen-e-say, in lat. 70£°, accompanied by their young broods. That

was a few miles south of where the goose was shot on her nest.


The Duchess of Bedford writes from Woburn Abbey : “ We

imported one alone first, and then ten others two or three years


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