BERNICLE GOOSE. 7$ 



peditions, are in the above-named work considered 

 to be a distinct and new species, there described as 

 A. Hutchinsii. Audubon never met with it either 

 on the coast or in the interior, and introduces it to 

 his biography on the authority of others, at the same 

 time he states having seen mounted specimens in 

 various parts. It undoubtedly does not occur fre- 

 quently or in any thing like the abundance of 

 the other European and American geese, and its 

 breeding- places are still a desideratum to our orni- 

 thological knowledge.* Japan and Northern Asia 

 are given to it by Temminck. It may be re- 

 marked, however, that " Barnacle" is a name com- 

 monly also applied to the Brent Goose; in the 

 Edinburgh markets, where the latter species is 

 abundant during winter, it is known under no 

 other name, and thus by the intermixture of its pro- 

 vincial appellation, confusion of distribution may 

 easily occur. 



In this goose the bill is very small, and with the 

 feet and legs black ; the forehead in a line with 

 the eyes, the chin, throat and cheeks are white ; 

 between the bill and the eye there is a broad line of 

 interrupted black, and the back of the head, neck, 

 and breast are of a deep and glossy shade of the 

 same colour; on the back this appears to shade 

 gradually in, from the apparent portion of the 

 feathers being of that colour, lightening as they ap- 

 proach the middle, and having the edges at first very 



* " I suspect the shores of the White Sea, to the eastward, 

 are the great breeding-places of this bird." Yarrel, iii. p. 74. 



