IV 



ANATIDAE 



131 



countries, with plumbeous, and C. rvMdiceps, of the Falklands, 

 with cinnamon head, have in both sexes chestnut and black 

 plumage, the wing being as in C. mageUanica, the bill black, the 

 feet black and orange. C. melanoptera will nest in holes in cliffs. 

 Sub-fam. 7. Jbiserinae. In this group the female resembles 

 the male. Nesochen sandvicensis, of the Sandwich Islands, has a 

 black head and throat, brown plumage barred with whitish and 

 black, and buff sides of the neck with black stripes. It inhabits 

 craters and " lava-flows " on hills, and is fond of berries. The mem- 

 bers of the genus Bernicla, or Black Geese, are grey and black, 

 with a varying amount of white, and have black bills and feet. B. 

 hrenta, the Brent Goose, our commonest winter species, is brownish- 

 black, with darker head, neck, and breast, white tail-coverts and 

 lateral neck-patches. It is found in the Arctic Piegions, and migrates 

 as far as the Mediterranean and the Mississippi. It feeds by day 

 in shallows on grass-wrack, laver, crustaceans, and insects, has 

 a loud note, and lays about four cream-coloured eggs. From 

 western Arctic America to the Lena occurs the form B. nigricans 

 with white collar and black belly. B. leucojisis, the Bernacle Goose, 

 mio-ratingj to the 

 same districts as B. 

 hrenta, abounding on 

 our west coasts in 

 winter, and occupy- 

 ing in summer 

 Arctic Europe and 

 Greenland, where it 

 is supposed to breed, 

 has nested in one 

 place in Norway. 

 The front of the head 

 is white, the crown 

 and neck are black, 

 the mantle is laven- 

 der-grey marked 

 with black and 

 white, the under 



parts are greyish. Unlike the Brent Goose, it feeds at night. 

 B. canadensis, of temperate North America, wintering down to 

 Mexico, has a triangular white patch on each side of tlie black 



Fig. 35. Red-breasted Goose. Bernicla ruficollis. x 



