OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 337 



Family ANATIDJE. Genus BBANTA. 



Subfamily AtiSERiNM. 



RED=BREASTED GOOSE. 



BRANTA EUFICOLLIS (Pallas). 

 PLATE XXXIII. 



Anser ruficollis, Pall. Spicil. Zool. vi. p. 21, pi. v. (1769) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii., 

 p. 515 (1885) ; Seebohm, Col. Pig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 35, pi. 11 (1896). 



Bernicla ruficollis (Pall.), Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 634 (1852) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vi. 

 p. 403, pi. 416 (1876) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 281 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. Pig. 

 Brit. B. pt. xxi. (1892) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 158 (1894) ; 

 Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. ii. p. 243 (1896). 



Branta ruficollis (Pall.), Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 124 (1895). 



Geographical distribution British : The Red-breasted Goose is an 

 accidental straggler during autumn and winter to our area. Among many more 

 than doubtful records, the following instances are apparently thoroughly trust- 

 worthy : England: Near London (one example), 1776. Quite an historical 

 interest attaches to this specimen. It was recorded by Tunstall, formed the 

 subject of one of Bewick's plates, and is still preserved in the Newcastle Museum. 

 Yorkshire (one example), probably got about the same time as Tunstall's 

 specimen ; Caithness (one example) ; Northumberland (one example), 1818 ; 

 Devonshire (two examples), 1828, 1837; Essex (one example), January, 1871. 

 Foreign : Extreme north-central Palsearctic region ; more southerly in winter. 

 It is only known to breed above the limits of forest growth in the valleys of the 

 Obb, the Yenisei, and the Boganida. Middendorff obtained the first authenti- 

 cated eggs of this Goose on the Boganida, and was assured that the bird was 

 still more numerous at the mouth of the Piasina, some miles further west. 

 An egg with the parent bird which had been obtained from an island in the delta 

 of the Yenisei was brought to Seebohm ; whilst Finsch found it fairly numerous 

 in the valley of the Obb. More recently (1896) Mr. H. L. Popham found four 

 nests in the valley of the Yenisei. The migration of this species appear to be 

 across the plains of the Tax, between the Yenisei and the Obb, and down the 

 valley of that river into the Irtish valley, thence into that of the Tobol and the 

 Ural, onwards to the Caspian. This route takes the bird through South-western 

 Siberia and Northern Turkestan to its winter quarters in the basin of the 

 Caspian. Eastwards this species has wandered as far as Lake Baikal, whilst 

 westwards it has occurred in every country of Europe, except the Spanish 

 Peninsula. The only evidence of this bird extending its wanderings southwards 

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