412 BRENT GOOSE. 
numbers it nests in the Spitsbergen archipelago, Franz Josef Land, 
Novaya Zemlya, Kolguev, and the coasts and islands of Arctic 
Siberia ; near Kolguev, indeed, it must be abundant, judging from 
Mr. Trevor-Battye’s experiences. On the Pacific side of North 
America its representative is B. nigricans, in which the white on the 
neck forms a nearly complete collar, while the black extends to the 
lower breast ; this is the species which visits Japan. Throughout 
Arctic America eastward of Alaska our bird is found; though in 
American examples the under parts are, as a rule, somewhat lighter 
than in the majority of birds obtained in Novaya Zemlya &c. Both 
of these forms visit the British Islands, but the darker usually— 
though not invariably—predominates on the east coast south of the 
Humber. Exceptionally the Brent has been taken in Central Europe. 
Col. Feilden describes a nest in Grinnell Land as composed of a 
foundation of grass, moss and stems of saxifrage, with a warm bed 
of down for the eggs, laid by June 21st and usually 4 in number, 
smooth and creamy-white in colour: measurements 2°7 by 1°8 in. 
The Brent Goose is a day-feeder, searching on the ooze, or with 
head and neck extended below the surface of the water in shallow 
places, for aquatic plants and sea-ware, especially grass-wrack and 
laver: whence the local names ‘‘ Ware-Goose” and “ Road-Goose,” 
z.¢e., Root-Goose. The call-note is a loud cvonk or honk. 
The adult has the bill, head, throat, and neck black, except a 
small white patch on each side of the last; mantle brownish-black, 
with paler edges, which in August, after the moult, are tinged with 
rufous-brown ; quills, rump and tail black, tail-coverts white ; upper 
breast black ; lower breast and belly slate-grey; legs black (exception- 
ally with a reddish tinge). Length 22 in.; wing 13 in. Females 
are rather smaller than males. The young bird has little or no 
white on the sides of the neck, and the colours are less contrasted. 
The Canada Goose, Bernicla canadensis, has been domesticated 
in this country for more than two centuries, and stragglers are 
occasionally shot out of the hundreds of unpinioned birds now in 
existence ; but there is no evidence that wild American birds visit 
us, and it is significant that occurrences in Ireland are far rarer than 
in England. The Egyptian Goose, Chenalopex egyptiaca, is another 
introduced species, examples of which often wander and are killed ; 
though in a wild state it is not known to cross the Mediterranean. 
The Spur-winged Goose, Plectropterus gambensis, was introduced 
prior to 1678, and two examples have been killed in this country ; but 
the species is not found wild in Africa north of the tropic of Cancer. 
