WILD GEESE AND BRANT. 



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yellow ; remaining parts wavy bluish grey, varied with pale lilac, 

 and sharply marked here and there with crescent-like black spots. 

 Throat black, speckled with white, quills black and white. This 

 bird is abundant in Alaska. 



Brajtta leitco^sis. — Bonn. Barnacle Goose. 



A European species which has, it is believed, been taken in this 

 country but three times ; Hudson's Bay, AmericaJi Naturalist, vol. 

 ii. p. 49. North Carolina, ibid. vol. v. p. 10, and Long Island, 

 Forest and Stream, vol. vii. pp. 181, 245, 277 ; also Nuttall Bul- 

 letin, January, 1877. This species is somewhat less in size than 

 the Canada Goose, being intermediate between that species and 

 the common Brant B. bernicla. Its length is about twenty-eight 

 inches, wing seventeen. Tail ' coverts, sides of rump, forehead, 

 sides of head and throat white ; back scapulars and wing coverts 

 bluish grey ; under parts greyish white, other parts black. Goose 

 shooters should be on the constant lookout for this very rare bird. 



The genus Branta, under which this and the remaining species 

 of North American Geese fall, are always to be distinguished from 

 the two preceding genera by having the bill and legs black, and 

 the head and neck black with white* spaces. We have but three 

 species to be placed here, with three more or less well marked 

 varieties. 



Branta bernicla. — Scop. Brant Goose. Black Brant. 



The true B. bernicla, is the common bird of the East Coast, 

 but is " rare or casual " on the Pacific, where it is replaced by var. 

 nigricans, the Black Brant, which is not found on the Atlantic. 

 The Brant is about two feet in length, and is but little larger than 

 a good-sized Mallard Duck. Its head, neck, body anteriorly, 

 quills and tail, are black. Upper tail coverts, streaks on sides 

 of neck, upper eyelid and sometimes touches on throat, white ; 

 back and under parts brownish grey, the latter fading posteriorly 

 into white, on the belly and under tail coverts. Black of neck 

 well defined against the brown of the breast. In variety nigricatts 

 the black of the lower neck extends backward over most of the 

 lower parts, gradually fading out behind. The white neck 

 patches, too, are large and generally meet in front. The differen- 

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