144 Geese of Europe and Asia 



Taganrog, together with countless flocks of the lesser white-fronted species. Their numbers 

 may perhaps be comparatively small, but I should not be surprised if time should prove that 

 they winter in the southern part of the Black Sea, a region zoologically almost entirely 

 unexplored. Professor Menzbier defines the eastern limit of the migrations of this species 

 as the neighbourhood of Irkutsk. 



Although there are no positive data in regard to India, we yet have Blyth's statements, 

 which permit the belief that this goose has occurred in that country, to which it may turn 

 out that it is a regular winter visitor. It is known, for instance, that of late years there have 

 been observed in India, and in some cases in considerable numbers, species formerly no one 

 expected to find there, such as Erismatura leucocephala, Nyroca baeri, Anser jinmarchicus } 

 and Anas zonorhyncha, so that there is nothing improbable in the occurrence of the 

 present bird. 



The rarity of the red-breasted goose on migration in Turkestan has yet to be verified. 

 This species has also been recorded from North-west Africa, Italy (Florence, Mantua), 

 France (Seine Inferieure), Holland (where, among other cases, a red-breasted goose was 

 once killed from a flock of barnacle geese, together with twenty-three of the latter), Galicia, 

 Hungary, various parts of Germany, etc. Mr. H. Saunders records sixteen instances of this 

 goose being killed in Great Britain, 1 the last specimen being shot in Essex from a flock 

 of brent in January 1871, and its skin subsequently sold by auction for thirty guineas. 



That the extent of the winter haunts of this goose was formerly greater than at 

 present is evident from the fact that coloured representations of the species have been 

 preserved to this day in the tombs and temples of Ancient Egypt, while it is now never 

 met with on the Nile. It is not yet clear whether it occurs in winter in Spain, although 

 it can hardly be doubted that it sometimes finds its way to that country. 



Although red-breasted geese arrive late at their breeding-grounds, not before the end 

 of May or even the beginning of June, and at once proceed to build their nests, the 

 movement northwards from their winter haunts begins very early. Thus, according to 

 Mr. Zhitnikov's observations, the red-breasted geese wintering on the Gyurgen disappeared 

 between January 18 and 23, and on January 22 reappeared on a lake in the middle course 

 of the Atrek, whence about February 7 they were already winging their way farther 

 north. 



From the South-western Caspian they start in the same direction towards the end of 

 February, and by the beginning of March appear near Astrakhan ; they then gradually move 

 northwards, halting in the Kirgiz steppes till April, and later on leisurely continue their 

 journey north, reaching their native tundra either by the end of May or in the beginning of 

 June. Near Orenburg Mr. Zarudny came across them in small skeins of from 3 to 15 birds 

 during the whole of April. 



Professor Middendorff writes as follows of this species : " I have not found it on the 

 Taimyr, but they say it usually nests and moults at the mouth of the Pyasina. 



" This goose frequently breeds on the Boganida, where, on June 25, the eggs were 

 slightly incubated. As these are unknown and very peculiar, I give a figure. They are 

 from 69 to 71 mm. (2.71-2.79 in.) long, with a diameter of 44-45 mm. (= 1.73— 1.77 in.)-" 



These scanty data were almost all that was known until Mr. Seebohm visited the 

 Yenisei, and this traveller was the first among English ornithologists to get a nest (with two 



1 Yarrell's British Birds, vol. iv. pp. 282-283. 



