GEESE. 409 



255. A. TOUQITATUS, 111. Prut Gas. The Brent Goose. D. F. 



Head and neck and breast black ; no white on 

 any part except the upper and under tail coverts, and 

 a little white patch on the upper side of the neck ; back 

 and shoulders black-grey ; tail and wings black ; belly, 

 upper and under tail coverts pure white ; beak and legs 

 black; iris deep brown; tail sixteen feathers, round, 

 equal to the closed wings; weight about 5 Ib. The 

 young have head and neck ash grey, with no white 

 spots ; length 2 ft. 1 in. ; beak 1 in. 3 1. ; tarsus 

 2 in. 2 1. 



I do not believe this goose breeds in Scandinavia, except 

 perhaps on the north-west coast of Norway, but in Spitz- 

 bergen and Greenland it is common during the summer. The 

 egg much resembles the last, but is smaller, light ivory yel- 

 low, smooth, very little larger than that of the sheldrake. 

 Sommerfeldt, however, says that both this, A. cinereus, and 

 A. arvensis all breed here and there around Tamsoe, but 

 the barnicle never. 



256. A. RUFICOLLIS, Pall. Rodhalsad Gas. The Red- 



breasted Goose. D. F. 



Crown of the head, breast, throat, cheeks, neck, back, 

 glossy black ; a large white patch between the beak and 

 the eye, and a brown-red patch encircled by white on the 

 sides of the head ; lower neck and upper breast brown- 

 red, with a white ring below ; belly, under and upper 

 tail coverts pure white ; length 22 in. ; tail 4 in. ; beak 

 1 in. ; beak black ; legs black-green ; eye brown. 

 Only a very accidental visitant to Scandinavia. Breeds 

 in Siberia and North Russia. Egg dirty grey-white, with a 

 kind of belt round the middle, of indistinct, confused dirty 

 yellow-brown spots ; scarcely so large as the egg of the brent, 

 and more pointed. I may add that I never saw but two of 

 these eggs; these, however, were genuine, and from Siberia. 

 A. arvensis, Brehm, which is, I believe, nothing more than 

 a variety of the bean goose, and A. hypcrboreus. Pall., the 

 snow goose, are both added to the Danish fauna. 



