THE BRENT GEESE. 2^7 



Beniida kucopsis, Macg. Br. B. iv. p. 622 (1852) ; Dresser, B. 



Eur. vi. p. 397, pi. 415, fig. i. (1878) ; B. O. U. List Br. 



B. p. 118 (1883) ; Saunders, ed. Yarr. Brit. B. iv. p. 286 



(1885) ; id. Man. Br. B. p. 397 (1889). 

 Anser leucopsis, Seebohm, Br. B. iii. p. 512 (1885); Lilford, 



Col. Fig. Br. B. part xi. (1889). 

 Branta leucopsis^ Salvad. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 117 



(1895)- 



Adult Male. General colour above ashy-grey, with white 

 margins to the feathers, before which is a black band, so that 

 the upper surface is prettily banded, especially on the wing- 

 coverts and inner secondaries ; the mantle blackish, like the 

 neck, but the upper back banded like the wings ; lower back 

 and rump black; sides of rump and upper tail-coverts white; 

 tail entirely black ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and pri- 

 maries grey, the latter black towards the ends ; the secondaries 

 pearly-grey, blackish at the tips and on the inner webs ; fore- 

 head and crown white to the line between the middle of the 

 eyes ; the middle and hinder part of the crown, as well as the 

 whole of the neck, lower throat, fore-neck, and chest, black, 

 the latter obscured with dusky-brown margins ; lores and 

 feathers in front of the eye black, browner near the base of the 

 bill and on the base of the forehead ; cheeks, ear-coverts, eye- 

 brow, and throat pure white ; breast and abdomen white ; the 

 sides of the body pearly-grey, the feathers tipped with white, 

 before which is a brownish shade producing a slightly mottled 

 appearance; thighs black; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 pearly-grey, with whitish tips and dusky sub-terminal bars like 

 the upper wing-coverts ; bill, feet, and claws black ; iris dark 

 brown. Total length, 30*0 inches ; culmen, 1*25; wing, 15*0; 

 tail, 5-3; tarsus, 3-1. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male, but a little smaller. 

 Young. Differs from the adults in having some black 

 feathers intermingled with the white of the cheeks ; the feathers 

 of the back and wing-coverts with a rufous tinge at the ends ; 

 the grey bars on the flanks darker, and the legs, according to 

 Count Salvadori, not so black as in the adults. 



Range in Great Britain. A winter visitor from the north, but 

 rare on the eastern coasts of our islands, and decidedly so in 



