512 BRITISH BIRDS. 



ANSER LEUCOPSIS. 

 BERNACLE GOOSE. 



(Plate 60.) 



Anser bernicln, I ^^..^^ ^^.^^ ^ 3^^^ 3^2 ^^j.^^q^ 



Anser bernicla minor, i 



Anas bernicla, ^, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 198 (1766). 



Anas bernicla (Briss.), Tunst. Orn. Brit. p. 4 (1771). 



Anas leucopsis, Bechst. Orn. Taschenh. ii. p. 424 (1803) ; et auctorum plurimorum 

 —Temminch, (Degland ^- Gerhe), {Naumann), {Bonaparte), (Dresser), (Saun- 

 ders), Sec. 



Anser leucopsis (Bechst.), Bechst. Natiirr/. Deiilichl. iii. p. 921 (1809). 



Bernicla leucopsis (Bechst.), Bote, Isis, 1822, p. 50.'5. 



Branta leucopsis (Bechst.), Bannist. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1870, p. 131. 



The Bernacle Goose^ possibly so-called from the name of the shellfish 

 -which was popularly supposed to develop into it, most probably gave its 

 name to the moUusk. The word is spelt "Bernacle" by the majority of 

 ornithologists, including Pennant, Bewick, Newton, and Saunders ; but 

 others, amongst whom may be enumerated Selby, Macgillivray, Yarrell, and 

 Gould, spelt it " Bernicle " ; whilst the dictionaries almost unanimously 

 regard ''Barnacle" as the legitimate word. Unfortunately its derivation 

 is absolutely unknown; but in 1555 Gesner spelt it " Bernicla," and a 

 hundred years later Wiilughby and Ray quote both words, '' Bernicla sen 

 Bernacla." 



The Bernacle Goose is a fairly common winter visitor to the coasts of 

 the British Islands, but is most abundant on the west coasts of Scot- 

 land. Saxby only observed it once in Shetland. In Ireland it is locally 

 distributed, being most common in the north and north-west. It 

 sometimes visits inland districts. 



Although the Bernacle Goose has never been found breeding in a wild 

 state, it has been recorded dm'ing the breeding-season from Greenland, Ice- 

 land, Spitzbcrgen, and Nova Zembla*. It is an accidental visitor to the 



* The Bernacle Goose was first recorded from Spitzbergen bv Nordenskiiild; but the 

 correctness of his identification of the species was doubted by some ornithologists (Newton, 

 Ibis 18Go, p. 513) until it was confirmed by Malmgren (Ibis, 1869, p. 230) and by the 

 fact that seven examples of the Bernacle Goose were actually shot on the island (Eaton, 

 ' Zooloo-itit,' 1874, p. 3815). Its occurrence on Nova Zembla also rests upon the authority 

 of Nordenskiiild, who remarks (' Voyage of the Vega,' i. p. 126), " On Spitzbergen, besides 

 the Bernacle Goose" (the name applied by Nordenskiiild to the Brent Goose, as proved by 

 the woodcut on the previous page) " we meet with the closely allied species, Anser leii- 

 copsis, Bechst. It is rather rare, but more common in Novaya Zemlya." Under these 

 circumstances I cannot agree with Saunders that " there does not appear any evidence 

 that this species has been found in Novaya Zemlya " (Yarr. Hist. Brit. Birds, 4th edit. iv. 

 p. 288). 



