Mr. A. Newton on the Birds of Spitsbergen. 513 



nacle-Goose. This confusion it was that, I suspect, led Professor 

 Nordenskjold to believe that he had shot the latter [Bernicla 

 leucopsis) in Bell Sound in 1858. No other observer has met 

 with this last species in Spitsbergen ; and I am therefore inclined 

 to the opinion that a mistake has been made, and that the ex- 

 ample obtained, which does not seem to have been preserved, 

 was only a Brent-Goose, which seems to be numerous all round 

 Spitsbergen, except perhaps on the east side*. 



18. Anser brachyrhynchus, Baillon ; A. Newton, P. Z. S. 

 1864, p. 498. A.fer-us, Evans and Sturge, p. 172. A. cinereus, 

 Torell, p. 61 ; Malmgren, 1863, p. 115. A. segetum, Id. 1863, 

 p. 107. A. segetum v. hrachtjrhynchus, Id. 1864, pp. 396, 412. 



I have already mentioned that, on the 13th July, I recognized 

 in a freshly killed Goose in Dr. Malmgren^s possession an ex- 

 ample of this species, which had previously been mistaken for 

 others by all former observers in Spitsbergen ; and I am glad to 

 find that my friend, in his last paper, partially corrects the error 

 he had before made. That Anser brachyrhynchus is a species 

 perfectly distinct and easily recognizable from A. segetum no 

 ornithologist in England now requires to learn ; and I should be 

 surprised at the scepticism shown on this point by our Conti- 

 nental brethren, were it not that the whole genus has been so en- 

 cumbered by the invention of so-called subspecies, that the real 

 distinctions between the independent members of it have been 



* It was doubtless to this species that the nest belonged which figures 

 in a ludicrous story, told in the narrative of Lord Mulgrave's voyage by 

 an anonymous author (Mavor's ' Collection of Voyages,' vol. xi. pp. 32, 33). 

 A boat's crew from the ' Carcase ' were sent to examine Moffen Island, 

 when they were pursued by two bears, one of which approached very fast. 

 The officer in command, it seems, was not distinguished for his courage, 

 and, being very corpulent, had scarcely breath enough left to call to his 

 men to halt. " In this critical situation he unfortunately dropped his 

 gun, and in stooping to recover it, stumbled against a goose-nest, fell 

 squash upon his belly into it, and had very nigh smothered the dam upon 

 her eggs. Before he could well rise, the enraged gander came flying to 

 the assistance of his half-smothered consort, and making a dart at the eye 

 of the assailant, very narrowly missed his mark, but discharged his fury 

 plump upon his nose." The men, luckily, returned and killed both his 

 enemies, to the great relief of their commander, who does not appear to 

 have been a shipmate of Nelson's. 



