STRANGERS OF THE AUTUMN. 209 



coast of Ireland Its nearest breeding-place is 

 probably Nova Zembla, and it would appear that 

 the birds that summer there go well out to sea, 

 and possibly come by way of Spitzbergen and 

 Iceland, shunning the coasts of Norway, and never 

 appearing to join the stream of migration which 

 flows down the Baltic from the shores of the 

 White Sea. One or perhaps both of the two 

 forms of Snow Goose have been met with in the 

 British Islands during autumn ; and as these indi- 

 viduals have been captured in Ireland, it is possible 

 they may have come across the Atlantic. Both the 

 races of this bird may be circumpolar, although, 

 so far as is at present known, the breeding range 

 of the larger form is confined to the Hudson's 

 Bay Territory, and the smaller form to North-west 

 America. The Red-breasted Goose occasionally 

 wanders to our shores in autumn, generally in the 

 company of Brent and Barnacle . Geese. The 

 breeding range of this bird is very restricted, pro- 

 bably being confined to the valleys of the Obb 

 and the Yenesay, within a few hundred miles of 

 the coast of the Arctic Ocean. Stray examples 

 of the Ruddy Sheldrake have been met with in 

 this country in autumn. This bird is a resident in 

 those parts of Europe it inhabits, but is a migrant 

 in Asia, so that it is most probable the individuals 

 occurring here have been brought from the far 

 -east with the stream of western migrants. The 

 Red-crested Pochard is an accidental wanderer 

 here from Germany ; and Steller's Eider, a very 

 rare visitor indeed, from the coasts of Russian 



