508 BRITISH BIRDS. 



ANSER BRENTA AND ANSER BRENTA GLAUCOGASTER. 



BRENT GOOSE and WHITE-BELLIED BRENT GOOSE. 



(PLATE 60.) 



The Brent Goose is a circumpolar bird, of which there are three races. 

 The Pacific Brent Goose breeds from the valley of the Lena, eastwards across 

 Behring Straits as far as the Rocky Mountains. It is probably specifically 

 distinct, and may always be distinguished by the fact that the white marks 

 on each side of the neck meet together in front. This species (Anser 

 nigricans] has the belly almost as black as the breast. In the Taimur 

 peninsula, in Nova Zembla, Franz-Josef Land, and Spitzbergen typical 

 Anser brenta breeds, having the underparts generally as dark as those of the 

 Pacific species, but with the white on the sides of the neck not meeting in 

 front. In Arctic America, from the west coast of Greenland as far west 

 as the Parry Islands, and north of lat. 73 as far as land is known to ex- 

 tend, the white-bellied form of the Brent Goose (Anser brenta glaucogaster) 

 breeds ; it has the underparts below the breast almost pure white and the 

 white on the sides of the neck does not meet in front. Both the two latter 

 races and intermediate forms between them occur on our coasts ; but the 

 white-bellied form is much the rarer of the two. The synonymy of the 

 two forms is as follows : 



ANSER BRENTA. 



BRENT GOOSE. 



Anser brenta, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 304 (1760) ; Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. 8fc. Brit. Mus. 



p. 37 (1816) ; et auctorum plurimorum (Degland 8f Gerbe), (Bonaparte), 



(Salvadori), (Dresser), (Sounders), &c. 

 Anas bernicla, a, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 198 (1766). 

 Branta bernicla (Linn.), Scop. Ann. I. Hist. Nat. p. 67 (1769). 

 Anas brenta (Briss.), Tunst. Orn. Brit. p. 4 (1771). 

 Anser bernicla (Linn.), Illiger, Prodr. p. 277 (1811). 

 Bernicla brenta (Briss.), Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii. pt. 2, p. 46 (1824). 

 Bernicla melanopsis, Macaill. Man. Brit. B. ii. p. 161 (1842). 



Anser torquatus (Frisch, nee S. G. Gmeliri), Bechstein, Naumann, Boie, Nilssm, Jenyns, 

 Yarrett, &c. 



ANSER BRENTA GLAUCOGASTER. 



WHITE-BELLIED BBENT GOOSE. 

 Bernicla glaucogaster, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 849 (1831). 



The Brent Goose is a common winter visitor to the coasts of the British 

 Islands, where it is almost universally distributed, but is said to be less 

 abundant on the west coast of Scotland and the adjoining islands. It is 



