408 RED-BREASTED GOOSE. 
the nest in 70° 30! N. lat. on the Yenesei, along the banks of which 
he afterwards saw adults with their broods; while on the Boganida, 
115° E. long., Middendorff had long ago obtained the first authenti- 
cated eggs, and as a straggler this species has occurred as far east 
as Irkutsk. An important line of migration in autumn is between 
the Aral and the Caspian, and on the latter, according to Dr. Radde, 
large numbers are often caught in nets or shot on some grassy 
islands near the south-western shore, during the winter. ‘The 
ancient Egyptians were acquainted with this handsome Goose, for it 
is accurately portrayed in colours on the Maydoom slab already 
mentioned (p. 400), and repeatedly, according to Mr. E. C. Taylor, 
at Thebes. I have seen a specimen in the collection of the late 
Lord Lilford, labelled by the late Mr. S. Stafford Allen “Alexandria, 
December znd 1874,” and skins saic to be from Algeria were 
offered for sale in 1884. Three examples have been obtained in 
Italy, five or six in France, several in Holland, and a few in 
Northern Germany, Denmark, and Sweden ; while in Russia the 
bird is said to visit Archangel in spring’and to pass through the 
Central Provinces, in small numbers. ; 
On the Yenesei, in 1895, Mr. H. L. Pophtim found ed 
all placed at the foot of cliffs occupied by eit{fhe: < Peregyine or a 
Rough-legged Buzzard (possibly for protection #from foxes), and well 
supplied with down; the 7-9 eggs being creamygwhite: measurements, 
2°79 by 1°93 in. (Ibis 1897, p. 99). The gall-note is syllabled by 
Pallas as skak-voy, whence comes, according to Dr. Finsch, the local 
name at Obdorsk. The food consists of grass and green vegetables, 
and water is frequently taken. In » wild state this species is 
exceedingly gregarious, aud ix ~vafinement it is very tame and 
sociable. A female/ which lived in the a of the Zoological 
Society from 1858 tg 1870, paired with a Blrent Goose, and, judging 
by its skin, now in fhe British Museum, the plumage is as brilliant 
in this sex as in th¢ male. 
The adult has p white patch in front of the eye; the crown, 
throat, hind-neck, and lower part of the breast black, bordered by 
narrow lines of wiite ; ear-patches and breast rich chestnut ; upper 
parts almost black, with greyish-white edges to the wing-coverts ; 
tail black ; belly white, barred with black on the flanks ; bill, legs 
and feet very dark brown. Length 21-22 in.; wing 14°53 in. In 
the young bird the ar-patch is whitish, with rufous in the centre ; 
the chest is merely tinged with reddish ; and the rest of the upper 
and under parts are dusky-brown, except the abdomen and the tail- 
coverts, which are white. \, 
