514 BRITISH BIRDS. 



narrow ledges of the rocks^ and sometimes in a sheltered locality under 

 stones or isolated rocky masses, laying five eggs. 



These meagre and doubtful details are all that is known of the breeding 

 of the Bernacle Goose except in a state of domestication. Eggs laid in 

 confinement are creamy white, granulated in texture, and without gloss. 

 They vary in length from 2'9 to 2 75 inch, and in breadth from 2"0 to 

 1"85 inch. The Loffodcn-Island eggs received by Collett are slightly smaller, 

 measuring 2*6 by 1'8 inch. They are indistinguishable from eggs of the 

 Brent Goose, but may possibly be distinguished from eggs of the White- 

 fronted Goose by their relatively lighter weight. 



The Bernacle Goose is slightly larger than the Brent Goose, and the 

 male is slightly larger than the female, but there is no difference in colour 

 between the two sexes. In the adult the fore half of the head is entirely 

 white except a black band passing through the eye and round the base of 

 the upper mandible ; the hind head and the neck, extending to the upper 

 back and the upper breast, are glossy black ; the feathers of the mantle, 

 the scapulars, wing-coverts, and innermost secondaries are pale slate-grey 

 tipped with white, and subterminally barred with black ; the lower back 

 and centre of the rump are brownish black ; the sides of the rump and 

 the upper tail-coverts are white ; the quills and tail-feathers are nearly 

 black. The underparts below the centre of the breast are white, obscurely 

 barred with grey and brown on the sides of the breast, the flanks, axil- 

 laries, and under wing-coverts. Bill, legs, feet, and claws black; irides 

 hazel. In young in first plumage the white on the head is suffused Avitli 

 buff, the black on the hind head, neck, and breast is suffused with brown, 

 which is still more marked on the upper back, all the white tips to the 

 feathers of the upper parts are suffused with brown, and the tail-feathers 

 are tipped with greyish Avhite. After the first autumn moult a plumage is 

 assumed intermediate between that of the young in first plumage and the 

 adult. Young in down (bred in confinement near Newcastle by Captain 

 Noble) have the upper parts pale slate-grey, and the underparts greyish 

 white. 



W>W-m^^: 



t 



