6 BIRD NAMES. [No. 3. 



the feathers touched with white, this producing transverse bars. 

 Under parts of other specimens, more correctly described as 

 white, shaded beneath black of fore-breast and along the sides 

 with ill-defined bars of light brown ; in all cases becoming pure 

 white back of legs. 



Length about twenty-four inches ; extent forty-six to forty- 

 eight inches. Legs blackish. 



Range, as given in A. O. U. Check List, northern parts of 

 Northern Hemisphere ; in North America chiefly on Atlantic 

 coast ; rare in the interior, or away from salt water. 



BRANT: BRENT: BRANT GOOSE: BRENT GOOSE: BRAND 

 GOOSE: COMMON BRANT: has been also called BLACK BRANT, 

 though this latter name is generally applied, and more appropri- 

 ately, to Branta nigricans, a similar but darker bird, rare on our 

 Eastern coast. The old names " brant," " brent," etc., refer to 

 the dark color : it is ~burnt or branded goose. It ranks high for 

 table use, and being exceptionally fine when shot late in spring, 

 the term " May Brant " has long had a momentous meaning 

 among epicures. 



We read in Yarrell's British Birds that " in Shetland it is 

 called HORRA GOOSE, from the numbers that frequent Horra 

 Sound," and the Rev. Charles Swainson says, in his Provincial 

 Names of British Birds, 1885 : " From the cry of this bird, which 

 is varied, sounding like the different expressions ' prott,' ' rott,' 

 and 'crock,' are derived the names ROTT GOOSE, or RAT GOOSE: 

 ROAD GOOSE, or ROOD GOOSE: CLATTER GOOSE (East Lothian): 

 QUINK GOOSE: CROCKER." Mr. Swainson also mentions Horra 

 Goose, and HORIE GOOSE as in use at Shetland Isles, and adds 

 that BARNACLE is "the common name for this species in Ire- 

 land a name entirely erroneous. But in some parts the true 

 Barnacle Goose (B. leucopsis) and the Brant are distinguished as 

 the Norway Barnacle and the WEXFORD BARNACLE." 



(See index for other " brant " geese.) 



