66 Geese of Europe and Asia 



eastern specimens are really somewhat bigger than the western, this difference is so insig- 

 nificant as hardly to merit serious attention. 



Geographical Distribution 



Once we unite the eastern and western lesser white-fronted geese, we may in general 

 terms define its breeding-grounds as follows. First of all, it nests in Lapland, but has not 

 (yet ?) been found on Kolguev. Although it has not been recorded by any observer from 

 Novaia Zemlia, it certainly breeds there, as Vasilov has brought thence a specimen of the 

 adult male. 1 Further, it breeds in the Kaninsk Peninsula, and, probably, throughout the 

 whole tundra of the northern coast-line of Siberia. 



Palmen quotes it for the northern littoral of Siberia as follows : lower course of 

 Yenisei— 60^-70° ; Boganida— 70 ; valley of Taimyr— 72^°-74° ; west coast of Taimyr 

 Peninsula — 73^°; lower reaches of Lena — 72°~7з^° ; estuary — 71 ; north coast of Chukchi- 

 land— 67 N. lat. ; and there is no doubt that from the Kaninsk Peninsula, through Yalmal 

 and to the Yenisei, it breeds wherever convenient spots occur. It also nests in Kamchatka. 2 

 As is justly observed by Mr. Buturlin in his Dikie Gusi R. /., the migration routes of the 

 lesser white-fronted goose in European Russia are as yet little investigated, and what we 

 know of them is still not fully established. This goose passes over all Finland, where I 

 have had occasion to observe it in considerable numbers on its autumn migration ; it also 

 occurs on migration in Livonia and near St. Petersburg, as well as in other parts of the 

 St. Petersburg Government, and in those of Archangel, Olonets, Novgorod in Poland and 

 Middle Russia; I have also seen vast numbers every autumn for 18 years in the neighbour- 

 hood of Taganrog. Here it is often long detained in autumn together with the white-fronted 

 goose, with which it feeds and passes the night in the same spots. Undoubtedly it also 

 occurs on the Sivash in autumn and winter, as Radde, speaking of the white-fronted goose, 

 remarks, " on the Sivash many of them were very small-sized," which leaves no doubt in my 

 mind that these "very small-sized" birds were of the lesser species, and, probably, from the 

 same mass which in autumn keeps in the Azov district sometimes till the end of November. 

 If it winter on the Sivash, then, especially in hard winters, when almost all the geese 

 move thence to the south, it must certainly visit the more southern coasts of the Black 

 Sea, so neglected by ornithologists. The passage of this species along the Volga and 

 Kama, disputed by Buturlin, I think requires further investigation, as it is far from ascer- 

 tained, and I fully admit the possibility of its occurring in some years and being almost 

 unknown in others, especially if on any line of migration there are no resting-places, so that 

 the geese, escaping the guns of the fowlers, may easily fly past unnoticed. 



Whether it abounds or not on the Ilmen (Novgorod Government) I cannot say, but 

 that it is there a bird of passage is proved by a specimen which served as the original for 

 Plate 5 of this book, as well as by several other examples seen by myself in St. Petersburg 

 and also sent from thence. In the Moscow Government it is not mentioned by F. K. 

 Lorenz; but this district is avoided in its flight not only by this goose but also by its 

 congener Anser anser. 



From the Ryazan Government it is cited (without any foundation, as a variety of 



1 Now in the Zoological Museum of the Imperial Academy of Science of St. Petersburg. 



2 That Dybowski failed to find it in Kamchatka is far from proving that it does not nest there. This species was found in 

 Kamchatka by Steller. 



