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8 BRANTA BERNICLA.——B. RUFICOLLIS. 
5478. Twc.—South Cape Islands, Spitsbergen, 21-22 June, 
1855. From Messrs. Wilson Sturge and Edward 
Evans. 
Given to me by these gentlemen after their return to England. They wrote 
(Ibis, 1859, p. 167) that they found on landing on one of the islands, at 
midnight on the 21st of June, Brent-Geese, Eider-Ducks, and Glaucous Gulls 
“in immense numbers, and the ground was covered with their nests..... 
The nests of the Eider Ducks were hollows scooped in the pebbly ground, 
very scantily lined with down mixed with sea-weed, forming in this respect a 
striking contrast to those of the Brent Goose, whose three or four eggs were 
buried in a perfect mass of down and feathers.” | 
5479. Four.—Simmonds Islands, Grinnell Land, Lat. 82° 
33! N., 25 June, 1876. ‘2 killed off nest. H.W. F.” 
From Captain Feilden, 1877. 
Kindly given to me by Captain (now Colonel) Feilden, who, writing in 
‘The Ibis’ for 1877 on the Birds observed during the Arctic Expedition of 
1875-6, says of this species :—“ During the first week of June, parties of these 
birds arrived in the vicinity of our winter-quarters,... On the 21st June I 
found the first nest with eggs, in lat. 82° 33’ N.; subsequently many were 
found. When the young are hatched the parent birds and broods congregate 
on the lakes or in open water-spaces near the shore in large flocks; by the 
end of July the old birds were moulting and unable to fly, so that they were 
easily secured.... The gander remains in the vicinity of the nest while the 
goose is sitting, and accompanies the young brood. In one instance where 
I killed a female as she left her nest the gander came hissing at me.” | 
BRANTA RUFICOLLIS (Pallas). 
RED-BREASTED GOOSE. 
5480. Siv—Lukaroy, Jennessei River, 1 July, 1895. 
‘Bird shot. C.B.H.” From Mr. C. B. Hill, 1896. 
Mr. Popham, whom Mr. Hill accompanied on his journey, wrote of this 
species in ‘ The Ibis’ for 1897 (pp. 99, 100) :—* The eggs of this Goose formed 
one of our chief prizes. Four nests were found with seven, seven, eight, and 
nine eggs (of a creamy-white colour) in each respectively. From ali the nests 
the female was shot. All the nests were placed at the foot of a cliff occupied 
by either a Peregrine or a Rough-legged Buzzard (possibly for protection 
from foxes), and well supplied with down. Measurement of eggs: 2°79 in. 
by 1:93 in.”] 
