PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 157 



BARNACLE-GOOSE [Brdnta leucopsis (Bechstein) ; Bernicla leucopsis 

 (Bechstein). French, bernache d joues blanches ; German, Weisswangen- 

 Oans ; Italian, oca faccia bianca]. 



1. Description. The barnacle-goose may at once be distinguished in 

 having a white head, save for the crown and nape, which, like the neck and fore- 

 breast, are glossy black. The beak and legs are black, and a more or less well-marked 

 black bar runs from the base of the beak to the eye. The sexes are alike. 

 (PL 153.) Length 27 in. [685*8 mm.]. The mantle and wing-coverts are lavender- 

 grey, barred with black and white ; the breast is greyish white, while the flanks 

 are white barred with grey. The juvenile plumage differs from that of the adult 

 in having the white of the head washed with brown. Young in down dark grey, 

 paler below, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. A winter visitor, chiefly to the west side of Scotland. 

 The only certainly known breeding-places at present are Spitsbergen, where 

 Professor Koenig obtained three clutches of eggs in 1907 and 1908, and North-east 

 Greenland, where Manniche observed a colony of about one hundred and fifty birds 

 on the precipitous face of Mount Trekroner, near Cape Bismarck, but found the 

 breeding-sites inaccessible. A pair apparently nested on the Lofoden Islands, but 

 this is quite exceptional. Whether it also breeds in Kolguev, Novaya Zemlya, 

 or North-west Siberia is not yet known; but judging from its known habit of 

 nesting on cliffs, Kolguev would seem to be unsuitable for that purpose. Its 

 normal whiter range extends to the shores of the Baltic and North Seas, and it 

 has been recorded from Russia, Scandinavia, N. Germany, Denmark, Holland, 

 and France, while as a rare casual it has been obtained in S. Spain and Italy, 

 and observed in Morocco, and has also been recorded occasionally from eastern 

 North America. [F. c. R. j.] 



3. Migration. A cold-weather visitor from the Far North. It has been 

 recorded as early as 10th July, but more usually appears between 16th September 

 and 24th November (cf. Clarke, Studies in Bird Migration, 1912, vol. i. p. 159). It 

 will be noticed that little is known of the summer haunts of the species, but a large 

 proportion of our birds appear to come to us from a north-westerly direction. It is 

 thus most abundant on the west coast of Great Britain, very notably in the Solway 

 Firth, and on the north-west coast of Ireland (also locally on the coast of Louth). 

 At Aranmore (off Donegal) it is first seen in October, sometimes in September, and 



