Red-breasted Goose 145 



eggs) in the valley of the Yenisei in the year 1877. He observed these geese with their 

 young broods on the banks of this river at the end of June. In 1895 Mr. H. L. Popham 

 had the good luck to find four nests in the Yenisei district, containing respectively 

 7, 7, 8, and 9 creamy-white eggs. The females in each case were shot from the nest. The 

 nests were placed at the foot of a cliff occupied by a peregrine or rough-legged buzzard, and 

 well lined with down. 1 They are described as resembling those of the bean-goose, 2 but 

 smaller. The creamy-white eggs, of which the shell is very fragile, have an underlying 

 green tint showing through. 



As Mr. Gobel measured and weighed only one egg of the red-breasted goose, I give 

 a table based on the scanty data available. 



Breadth or diameter from 45-55 mm. (= 1.7 3-1. 77 in.). 



Length or diameter from 69-72 mm. ( = 2.71-2.83 in.). 



Weight (one example) 600 cgrm. 



Gobel's egg : breadth 45 mm. (== 1.73 in.), and length 72 mm. ( = 2.83 in.). 



The young in down are still unknown. In this, as in other geese, the moulting of 

 the old birds begins immediately after hatching. Thus, Dr. Radde states that the geese of 

 this species kept in captivity at Tiflis began to moult at the end of June, from which it may 

 be inferred that, when wild in the north, they do so rather later, probably not before the 

 middle, or even the end, of July. Although we are not in a position to determine the date of 

 the autumn migration southwards, yet we may safely assume this to be simultaneous with 

 that of the lesser white-fronted species. 



Deferring mention of its habits till later, we give here Mr. Zhitnikov's interesting 

 notes on this species made on the Atrek. 



This naturalist saw no kazarkas (as the natives call this goose) on the lake 3 until 

 January 22, but on that day, " having arrived at the lake in the morning, I was struck," he 

 writes, " by the extraordinary number of kazarkas gathered there before daybreak, the whole 

 eastern shore being thickly covered with a black mass of them, which at dawn flew off to feed 

 in the steppe beyond the Atrek. Previously on that day I had noticed some difference in the 

 cry and flight of the birds, but I explained the assembling of these flocks on the hitherto 

 deserted lake by the natural sociability of birds preparing to migrate. On the following 

 days we shot in the Gudri Olum, where I saw the first traces of the spring passage then 

 just beginning, and, together with a noticeably increased number of ducks, observed also 



some new birds. G. M. V , for instance, killed a glossy ibis from a flock evidently 



migrating. Having returned home, I learned that a rare goose had been killed on the lake, 

 which, to my astonishment, I found to be a red-breasted goose (A user rttficollis). I now 

 realised the reason of the host of geese on the lake on January 22, and their strange cries : 

 evidently they were passing flocks of the red-breasted species. But whence had this splendid 

 bird come, since there were no traces of its wintering on the Atrek ? " Here the author 

 relates how he had previously heard at Christmas from an officer from the neighbouring 

 Russian post in Persia (Gumbet-Kobuz, 45 versts distant from Chatly) that a number of 

 birds had appeared there, larger than ducks and smaller than geese, of a " chocolate "colour, 

 resembling in flight and call the white-fronted goose, which also winters there. The author 

 continues: "I am now convinced that the 'chocolate-bird' wintering in Persia was un- 

 doubtedly the red-breasted goose, flocks of which, evidently moving north, I saw on this 



1 IbtSy 1897, pp. 96-100. 2 Genus Melanonyx, species unknown. 3 Middle stream of Atrek. 



U 



