154 Geese of Europe and Asia 



Schleswig-Holstein, where they collect in countless hordes; they also appear along the 

 shores of the North Sea, and in vast crowds on the coasts of Holland, Belgium, and Northern 

 France. Considerably later, as we shall see below, these geese occur on the seas around 

 Great Britain. They winter some years in millions on the northern coasts of France, " where 

 the notes of countless flocks," says Naumann, " drown the roar of the waves, and where 

 their swarms from afar darken the light like smoke." 



In concluding this review of the geographical distribution of the present species, I 

 may once more remark that there are two great gaps in our knowledge of its breeding and 

 wintering in Russia, namely, as regards its nidification on the shore of the Arctic Ocean 

 between the Kaninsk peninsula and the Yenisei, and its wintering on the Black Sea. Until 

 these gaps are filled up, much in the lines of migration of this bird must remain quite 

 unintelligible. 



It is a somewhat curious fact that we know scarcely anything at all about the habits 

 of this goose in Russia, and that the little which has of late been learned has not been 

 acquired by Russian subjects. Much interesting information about its mode of life on 

 Kolguev has been supplied by Mr. Trevor-Battye, who writes as follows: " I never saw the 

 nest or egg of a Kolguev brent. No inducement which I was able to offer to the Samoyeds 

 could extract from them any information as to the breeding-places of the birds, until the 

 Russians arrived in August, and with their help I got from Uano a reluctant admission that 

 they nested on the southern and north-eastern ends of the island. They hold the bird in almost 

 superstitious regard because of its extreme importance to them as winter food. I believe 

 that they themselves never approach the breeding-grounds during nesting-time. For this 

 they gave as their reason that a dog or a gun would make them all desert. The Samoyed 

 dogs are encouraged as bird-hunters, and a Samoyed cannot understand that it is possible to 

 go out without such companions. 



"The only reason I have, then, for assuming that the brent goose nests on Kolguev is 

 the word of the natives and the appearance of vast numbers of old and young birds off the 

 sandbanks in July." 



A little farther on the same writer makes an important and perfectly new statement 

 regarding these geese, thereby enriching the ornithological fauna of the district by a new 

 form. " Of the adults, two forms were clearly distinguishable. In the majority the lower 

 breast and belly were slaty, 1 but a large proportion had these parts light as mother-of-pearl ; 2 

 and there were some old birds in which the light fringe of the slate-coloured breast-feathers 

 was so wide that the bird could not easily be referred to either category. In one bird, a male, 

 in my possession, the neck and the tail-feathers are light brown ; apart from this, it may 

 almost be called a white bird." 



Of the nidification of this goose we have very incomplete information. The nest is 

 very simply constructed, as indeed is the case with all geese ; the material used being leaves, 

 grass, dry water-weeds, and, of course, a lining of down and feathers. Some ornithologists 

 consider that the number of eggs in a clutch is usually four, but it undoubtedly often reaches 

 six, and even nine. Although they usually build their nests on the ground, yet it sometimes 

 happens, as, for example, in Spitzbergen, that these geese nest on rocks in the neighbour- 

 hood of the nests of eider-ducks. The eggs have a thin shell, and are either delicate straw 



1 i.e. Branta bernicla, the typical form. 

 2 i.e. the light-bellied form, Branta bernicla glaucogaster. 



