288 VAST FLOCKS OF WILD GEESE. 



good deal in point of time, some kinds arriving earlier 

 than the others. 



Among the earliest arrivals of the northern geese, 

 the Brent is always conspicuous, and it is probable 

 that these birds go all the way to the pole, if there 

 is any land there, which appears to be almost certain, 

 judging by the constant flights of these and other 

 birds towards the far north, beyond the furthest limits 

 ever yet attained by man. Sir George Nares for 

 instance mentions that in 1876 parties of Brent geese 

 arrived in the vicinity of the winter quarters of the 

 Alert, as far north as Lat. 82 33' N., in the first 

 week in June, but they were very wary, and kept 

 well out of shot; and on the 2ist he states that a nest 

 was seen. * A little later, " on August 4th, 5 7 goslings 

 which had not yet learned to fly, were shot by the 

 expedition, f Concerning the migrations of geese in the 

 antarctic regions, of course we know comparatively 

 little, but enough is known to show almost beyond a 

 doubt that similar great migrations of these birds take 

 place there on an enormous scale. The incredible 

 numbers that used to frequent the Falkland Islands, 

 during quite recent years, for instance, is a matter of 

 ascertained historical fact ; we are however indebted to 

 Mr. Hudson for the latest account of the autumn arrivals 

 of migratory geese upon the Rio Negro, on the bor- 

 ders of Patagonia. The arrival there early in winter 

 of vast flights of the Upland geese ( Chloephaga Magel- 

 licana) was, he says, positively dreaded by the people ; 

 for it is scarcely possible to keep them from the cul- 



* Narrative of a Voyage to the Polar Sea, by Capt. Sir Geo. Nares, 

 R.N., 1878, Vol. ii.. p. 216. 

 f Ibid., Vol. ii., p. 124. 



