Red-breasted Goose 147 



pits ; there were only two or three flocks of geese in all, which showed on the lake at noon, 

 to leave at once for the steppe, whence they returned no more. Evidently the main body 

 had flown past to the north, and in fact a few days later we heard that a large number 

 had appeared in the steppes at Yagly-Olum (45 versts north of Chatly, on the Atrek). 

 Clearly the birds, having wintered far from the sea, in the valleys of Persia, travelled north, 

 not by the shore, the Urals, and the Kirgiz steppes, as they are wont to fly from the 

 Caspian to the tundras of Northern Asia, but were moving by the valley of the Atrek and 

 subsequently the Transcaspian desert, once the Atrek and its tributaries were left behind." 



Farther on we read: " On February 12 we rode out to Gudri with G. M. The 

 kazarkas were still fewer; grey- lags in the same numbers as before; flocks of Tringa 

 appeared, and we saw many lapwings on passage. From time to time were seen flocks of 

 Pterocles arenaria and Alchata severtsovi returning to the north. It should be mentioned 

 that in the Persian valleys, about the river Gyurgen, there winter millions of lesser 

 bustard and turkushkas {Vanelhis gregarius), and also common bustards. We now 

 received the news that about a month previously kazarkas, both kinds of bustard, and 

 in part the turkushkas had disappeared from the neighbourhood of Gumbet-Kobuz. 

 Reckoning three to four weeks backwards from the day we received this information, we 

 obtain approximately the date of the kazarkas leaving the Gyurgen ; that is to say, they 

 must have disappeared between January 18 and 23; and, indeed, on January 22 they 

 were with us on the lake. Is it not, then, manifest that the kazarkas, which remain here 

 till February 5, arrived from Persia, from the Gyurgen, moving northwards by the valley 

 of the Atrek and not by the seashore? I dwell specially on this point, because the 

 migration routes of the red -breasted goose have been strictly determined, and include 

 the shore of the Caspian and the rivers Volga, Ural, Tobol, Irtysh, and Obi, while there 

 was hitherto no evidence of the passage of the geese along the Atrek." 



Leaving these interesting observations of Mr. Zhitnikov, we turn to Dr. Radde in 

 his Ornis Caucasica, who writes as follows : — 



" I know of this most beautiful of all the kazarkas from the whole south-western 

 shore of the Caspian, but only as a winter visitor. In the middle of March there were 

 no more red-breasted geese at Lenkoran ; they had already left for the north-east. 1 Near 

 Baku it is known to every one, and I saw it there at the house of the Vice-governor 

 Glinozarev, a great bird-fancier, in the company of spoonbills, flamingoes, brahmini ducks, 

 and sheldrakes, in 1867. 



"Two specimens were once brought to the so-called acclimatisation garden at 

 Tiflis, where, without any care, they lived with the domesticated fowls, and were perfectly 

 tame. They graze like ordinary geese, that is, crop the young short grass, and, in 

 captivity, at first take no other food. Later on they get used to barley and wheat, but 

 green food, by preference young shoots of grass, is still necessary to them. 



In November 1879 these kazarkas were not yet to be found near Lenkoran. 

 They appeared only when the cold weather had set in, and kept to the north on the 

 fresh-water lowlands, in the steppe-zone, and especially on the spots thickly covered with 

 herbage. They flew out for the night far to sea, returning towards morning in large 

 crowds for the pastures. 2 They are said to collect in considerable numbers on the 

 Burani Islands, not far from the Kizil-agach shore, to the north of Sari Island. There, on 



1 I give a free and somewhat abbreviated translation of Dr. Radde' s account. 



2 Notwithstanding my late friend Dr. Radde's statement that the kazarkas flew out " to sea " for the night, I am firmly convinced 

 they pass the night not on the water but on uncovered sandbanks or on islands. 



