ANATID/E. 



595 



THE RED-BREASTED f.OOSE. 

 Berxicla rufic()LLis (Pallas). 



This small and richly-coloured Goose is a very rare wanderer as 

 far west as Great Britain, and almost all the authenticated specimens 

 in existence have been obtained on the east side of the island. The 

 first recorded occurrence is that of a bird shot near London during 

 a severe frost early in 1776, and now in the Museum of Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne ; while another, taken alive near Wycliffe in Yorkshire about 

 the same time, lived until 1785. One, killed near Berwick-on-Tweed 

 in 18 1 8, is in the British Museum (Natural History) ; and a fine 

 example sent from Maldon in Essex, on January 6th 187 1, is 

 in the collection of Mr. John Marshall of Taunton. Two are 

 said to have been obtained in South Devon, and one in Norfolk ; 

 while the remains of a bird killed in Caithness are— or were — in the 

 Sinclair collection, now at Thurso. There are other records, but 

 unsubstantiated. 



During the summer the Red-breasted Goose inhabits those dis- 

 tricts of Siberia which lie to the north of the limit of forest-growth, 

 from the lower valley of the Ob to that of the Boganida. In the 

 former Dr. Finsch found it not uncommon ; Mr. Seebohm secured a 

 bird which had been shot from the nest in 70° 30' N. lat. on the 



