330 FLAMINGOES, DUCKS, AND SCREAMERS. 



without lining, and is usually placed either at the base of a tussock of coarse grass 



or among heather ; the general number of eggs being six. 



Shy and wild as is the grey-lag goose in many districts, on the larger Indian 



rivers, according to the experience both of Mr. Hume and ourselves, it may be 



easily approached within range, with the aid of a boat protected in front by a 



screen, behind which the sportsman lias concealed. In this manner a flock 



standing on a sandbank may be approached within a hundred yards without 



causing much disturbance. " As you approach nearer," writes Mr. Hume, " all 



begin to walk slowly away, and, as a rule, if you persist in coming within twenty 



yards, and coming on quicker than they can walk, they rise and fly ; or if you 



stand up in the boat, or make any sudden noise, they will equally take to wing, 



but if you drift quietly down on them, they will let you come within twenty or 



thirty yards without quitting the bank." With the first shot they rise with a 



deafening clamour, generally circling round the boat, and often affording the 



chance of a second shot. 



The Brent or Although nearly allied to the snow geese, the typical brent geese 



Sea Geese, of the Northern Hemisphere (Bemicla) are distinguished from the 



true geese by their darker plumage, in which the head and neck are chiefly black, 



and the beak and feet entirely black, at all ages. All these birds are characterised 



by their short subconical beaks, of which the length is considerably less than that 



of the head; the mandibles having their inner edges nearly straight, and their 



lamellae nearly or completely concealed ; while the nail at the tip is ovate, and the 



nostrils oval and nearly central. The long wings are also more pointed than in 



the true geese, and the tail is short and rounded. 



Of the more typical representatives of the genus, we may first 

 Northern Species. . J f f fo » j 



mention the brent goose (B. hrenta), characterised by the head 



and neck being black, with the exception of a white patch on each side of the 

 latter. The length is about 22 inches ; and in the typical form the upper part of 

 the breast is black, while the lower part of the latter and the abdomen are slaty 

 grey. There is, however, a variety {glaucogaster) in which the under-parts below 

 the breast are nearly white. The brent goose inhabits all Arctic Europe and part 

 of Asia, wintering in the British Islands, North Germany, France, Belgium, etc., 

 and occasionally ranging to the Mediterranean and the Valley of the Nile. It 

 breeds in Spitzbergen, Novaia Zemlia, and the islands of Arctic Siberia, and 

 thence to the extreme north ; while in America it nests in Greenland, and ranges 

 southwards on the east side of that continent as far as New York, or even Texas. 

 In western Arctic America it is replaced by the American brent goose {B. nigri- 

 cans), distinguished by the white of the middle of the neck forming an almost 

 complete collar ; the winter range of this species extending along the Pacific sea- 

 board as far as Lower California. The bernicle goose {B. leucopsis) — anciently 

 supposed by some extraordinary confusion of ideas to have been produced from 

 the well-known ship-barnacles — is a larger species, measuring upwards of 25 

 inches in length, and easily recognised by the greater part of the front of the liead 

 being white, although the lores and the feathers at the base of the upper mandible 

 are black. The plumage of the upper-parts is largely lavender-grey ; the 

 scapulars, wing-coverts, and many of the wing-feathers tipped with a bluish black 



