334 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family ANATID^. Genus Beanta. 



Subfamily Anserine. 



BERNACLE QOOSE. 



BEANTA LBUCOPSIS— (JSecAsfem). 



Anas leucopsis, Bechstein, Orn. Taschenb. ii. p. 424 (1803). 



Bernicia leucopsis (Bechst.), Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 622 (1852) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vi. 

 p. 397, pi. 416, fig. 1 (1878) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 286 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests 

 and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 157 (1894). 



Anser leucopsis (Becbst.), Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 512 (1885); Lilford, Col. 

 Pig. Brit. B. pt. xi. (1889) ; Seebobm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 34, pi. 10 (1896). 



Branta leucopsis (Bechst,), Salvadori, Oat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 117 (1895) ; Sbarpe, 

 Handb. B. Gt. Brit. ii. p. 236 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. — Snfo's^ .- The Barnacle Goose is a winter 

 visitor to the British Islands, most abundant during severe seasons. It is least 

 common on the eastern coast line of Scotland and England, rare on the south 

 coast, but becoming much more frequent on the west, from Cornwall northwards. 

 It is abundant in the Solway district and on the coasts of Lancashire, and com- 

 monly distributed throughout the west coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides. 

 It passes the Orkneys and Shetlands on migration. It is locally distributed 

 in Ireland, where it is most abundant on the north and north-west coasts, 

 and, as might naturally be expected, in one or two favoured districts on the 

 east. This Goose frequently wanders inland, and winters on large sheets of 

 water, especially where it is afforded protection. Foreign : North-west Palse- 

 arctic region; more southerly in winter. Although the Bernacle Goose has 

 been well known for the past three hundred years and more, its breeding grounds 

 remain undiscovered, and authentic eggs laid by the bird in a wild state 

 are unknown. All that can be said is that it has been met with during the 

 breeding season in Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, Kolguev, and Nova Zembla. 

 CoUett states that this bird breeds on the Loffoden Islands, off the coast of 

 Norway, in lat. 68|-° ; but inasmuch as the evidence is second-hand, only the 

 eggs being sent, with a meagre description of the parents (by the proprietor of 

 the island), it is unwise to accept it. It should also be remembered that these 

 "Black Geese" are birds of the high north, and seem to require far different 

 climatic conditions for their reproduction than those prevailing in these compara- 

 tively low and Gulf Stream-encircled islands. It occurs sparingly in the White 



