418 THE BRENT BERNICLE. 



they are less afraid ; and sometimes one meets with single 

 birds so little apprehensive, that they will permit them- 

 selves to he killed with a stick." 



The Brent Bernicle (Prut-Gas, Sw. ; A. torquatus, 

 Frisch.). Like other wild geese, this bird was only seen 

 with us, and on the neighbouring coast, during migration ; 

 and that, according to M. von Wright, not every year. 

 It passes the summer months in the far north. Swedish 

 naturalists tell us that the greater part probably breed in 

 Lapland and Finmark. But this can hardly be the case ; for 

 neither M. Malm nor other travellers make mention of seeing 

 it there at that season. Its proper home is doubtless in 

 countries to the northward and eastward of Scandinavia. 

 On the coasts of the Icy Sea, between the rivers Lena and 

 Covyma, as also at the northern extremity of Kamtschatka, 

 Pallas tells us, it is abundant ; and from Holboll we learn that 

 it breeds in Greenland, north of the 73 of latitude. In 

 Denmark it is the most common of the migratory geese. 

 Its eggs are unknown in the peninsula. 



During migration, this bird, as with the common bernicle, 

 is seen in large flocks in the more southern parts of Sweden, 

 and that as well in the inland lakes as on the coast. Its cry, 

 which is continually heard when on the wing, consists of a 

 deep murmuring sound, and hence its Swedish designation. 

 It is described as being little shy, and easy of approach. 



" In Holland formerly," Kjgerbolling tells us, " the belief 

 prevailed that the brent bernicle was not engendered by eggs 

 in the same manner as other birds, but by a cirrhiped 

 a marine testaceous animal (Lepas anatifera, Linn.) ; but 

 Barenz, a Dutch navigator, who visited Spitzbergen in the 

 year 1595, where he met with immense numbers of these 



