6 BIRD NAMES. [No. 3. 



the feathers touched with white, this producing transverse bars. 

 Under parts of other specimens, more correctly described as 

 white, shaded beneath black of fore-breast and along the sides 

 with ill-defined bars of light brown ; in all cases becoming pure 

 white back of legs. 



Length about twenty-four ; inches ; extent forty-six to forty- 

 eight inches. Legs blackish. 



Eange, as given in A. O. IT. Check List, northern parts of 

 Northern Hemisphere ; in North America chiefly on Atlantic 

 coast ; rare in the interior, or away from salt water. 



BRANT: BRENT: BRANT GOOSE: BRENT GOOSE: BRAND 

 GOOSE: COMMON BRANT: has been also called BLACK BRANT, 

 though this latter name is generally applied, and more appropri- 

 ately, to Brcmta nigricans, a similar but darker bird, rare on our 

 Eastern coast. The old names " brant," " brent," etc., refer to 

 the dark color : it is burnt or branded goose. It ranks high for 

 table use, and being exceptionally fine when shot late in spring, 

 the term "May Brant" has long had a momentous meaning 

 among epicures. 



We read in Yarrell's British Birds that "in Shetland it is 

 called HORRA GOOSE, from the numbers that frequent Horra 

 Sound," and the Bev. Charles Swainson says, in his Provincial 

 Names of British Birds, 1885 : " From the cry of this bird, which 

 is varied, sounding like the different expressions ' prott,' ' rott,' 

 and 'crock,' are derived the names ROTT GOOSE, or RAT GOOSE: 

 ROAD GOOSE, or ROOD GOOSE: CLATTER GOOSE (East Lothian) : 

 QTJINK GOOSE: CROCKER." Mr. Swainson also mentions Horra 

 Goose, and HORIE GOOSE as in use at Shetland Isles, and adds 

 that BARNACLE is "the common name for this species in Ire- 

 land — a name entirely erroneous. But in some parts the true 

 Barnacle Goose (B. leuoopsis) and the Brant are distinguished as 

 the Norway Barnacle and the WEXFORD BARNACLE." 



(See index for other " brant " geese.) 



