BERNACLE GOOSE. 513 



Faroes and the Atlantic coasts of the United States. It is said to be rare ou 

 the anturan passage at Archangel, and passes regularly on migration along 

 the shores of Scandinavia to winter in the Baltic and on the coasts of 

 Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and Northern France. It occasionally 

 wanders to Central Europe, and has occurred as far south as the Spanish 

 peninsula. On the American continent it is represented by various races 

 of Canada Goose {Anser canadensis), from all of which it may be distin- 

 guished by its white instead of black forehead, and black instead of white 

 upper breast. 



The Brent and Bernacle Geese are constantly confused together by care- 

 less observers; even Linnasus regarded the Bernacle as only a variety of the 

 Brent ; and consequently the name of Bernacle Goose has constantly been 

 applied to the allied species. The two birds, however, are very distinct — so 

 much so indeed, that the American ornithologists have actually placed 

 them in different genera ! To avoid further confusion, it might be wise 

 partially to adopt the suggestion of Macgillivray, and call the two birds 

 the Black-faced Brent and the White-faced Bernacle. There are several 

 minor points in which they differ in their habits. The Bernacle is much the 

 shyer bird of the two, and though it goes down to the mud-flats to feed at 

 low water, it leaves them as soon as the tide has risen, and seeks some 

 grassy bank of a river or lake, where it finds not only seclusion from 

 observation, but also a kind of food which it appears to prefer to the 

 marine vegetation on the mud-flats. It is quite as gregarious as its allies, 

 can fly with great rapidity, and run, if from any cause unable to fly, with 

 a speed that makes pursuit difficult. The note of the Bernacle is a short 

 trumpet-like nasal hdn lidn. 



There can be scarcely any doubt that the Bernacle Goose breeds in Spitz- 

 bergen. The Rev. A. E. Eaton, who accompanied Leigh Smith in his 

 visit to that island in 1873, states C^ Zoologist,' 1874, p. 3815) that he found 

 a flock of about a dozen on a small lake on a hill in the north of Spitz- 

 bergen, opposite Diana Island. The birds were in full moult and quite 

 unable to fly on the 22nd of July, a date only five days earlier than that 

 on which I witnessed the extraordinary migration of Bean-Geese in exactly 

 the same condition on the lagoon of the Petchora. Mr. Eaton and his 

 companion shot seven of the flock of Bernacle Geese, and the rest ran oflF 

 as fast as their legs could carry them until they reached the sea, where 

 they were seen two days afterwards. 



Collett is of opinion that the Bernacle Goose breeds on one of the Loffo- 

 den Islands in lat. G8° 15'. The proprietor of this island sent him two 

 eggs of a Goose " with white cheeks, but having the rest of the plumage 

 and the feet dark,'' and 'Slaving a slight resemblance to a Cormorant." 

 He further stated that a solitary })air had bred on the island for some years 

 past, and built a nest composed of moss and straw, sometimes on the 



