BRENT- AND BARNACLE-GEESE 167 



haunts of the bean-goose, he apparently saw nothing of the courtship 

 of these birds, but succeeded in taking its eggs, in the tundras of 

 Dvoinik, in the valley of the Petschora. Soon after the young are 

 hatched, he remarks, the old birds, with their offspring, gather into 

 large flocks and march off into the tundra, where the adults must 

 undergo that most trying ordeal, the annual moult. They march like 

 a regiment of soldiers the old birds in front, the youngsters in the 

 rear. But ere the start is made the casting of the feathers has 

 already begun. During this period of defencelessness appalling 

 inroads on their ranks are made by the Samoyeds, who surround the 

 helpless birds and kill them with sticks by thousands. 



BRENT- AND BARNACLE-GEESE 



So much for the " grey " geese. We must now briefly review the 

 life-history of two species which differ from the foregoing in a very 

 striking manner, not only in appearance but also in habits. These two 

 are the brent- and the barnacle-geese. The grey geese are essentially 

 land-birds, the two now to be considered are pre-eminently marine- 

 birds, rarely leaving the immediate neighbourhood of salt water, at 

 any rate during the winter months, which they spend on mud-flats in 

 estuaries, where they find an abundance of their favourite food, 

 the Zostera weed. 



Before we proceed further, it is necessary to remark that besides 

 the typical species, with which most of my readers must be familiar, 

 two other geographical races, or subspecies, are now recognised 

 these are the pale-breasted and the black brent-geese. Both find a 

 place in the list of British birds. They, however, are but occasionally 

 met with in these islands, and differ but slightly from the brent-goose, 

 Branta bernicla. Of the black brent, indeed, not more than a score 

 have been recorded. 



The typical brent-goose, like the barnacle, comes south only to 



