164 Geese of Europe and Asia 



Bering Sea) the western Arctic portion of North America form the nesting-ground of this 

 brent. Of its nidification to the west of the Lena there are as yet no indications. 



This brent descends to winter along the eastern coast of the Asiatic continent and 

 the adjacent islands to Japan, and along the western coast of North America to Lower 

 California, sometimes even straying south to the Laysan Islands, and even Maui, where an 

 example was procured in 1891. 1 



As a very rare straggler, it has been recorded from the eastern coast of North 

 America (Long Island). 



"The migration routes of the black-bellied brent in East Siberia/' writes Maak, 

 "as likewise its manner of life there, are entirely unknown, nor is there any wealth of 

 information as to its habits in North America. From the statements of fowlers these 

 birds appear about the Yakutsk with the breaking-up of the ice on the Lena, and as they 

 fly very low on passage, especially towards evening, they are then massacred in large 

 numbers. 



"On the Lena, at the mouth of the Lunka, the first skein showed itself on May 13; 

 and the arrival continued about five days. Farther inland from the Lena these geese 

 occur very rarely, a fact confirmed by the Yakuts. 



"On the Amur, in the mountains of the Khingan range, in 48 N. lat, I saw great 

 flocks of this species from September 13 to 16, flying south ; and also after noticed them 

 on sandbanks, where they spent the night." 



Mr. A. M. Nikolsky, who did not meet with this goose in Sakhalin, writes as 

 follows :—" Personally I have not seen these geese on Sakhalin. T. S. Polyakov met 

 them on the Ptichi Gory at the end of May southwards of Nituya, off the eastern coast of 

 Sakhalin, on steep cliffs separated from the island by sea-water. Dobrotworski records this 

 species from South Sakhalin. Micul says the nemok, as a bird of passage, occurs from 

 spring to late autumn in South Sakhalin occasionally and in small numbers." 2 



In regard to North America we do not know very much. This bird has been 

 observed by Macfarlane in abundance, breeding on the western shore of the Arctic Ocean ; 

 and some nests were found by him on inland fresh-water lakes and at the mouths of the 

 Anderson, and many other nests were on the shore or on islands in Franklin Bay and 

 other spots on the coast. 



In some cases the nests were merely small depressions in the ground, lined with 

 down ; but in some the quantity of down was very great. The number of eggs in a clutch 

 was generally 5, but in one nest there were 7, and in several 6. 



This species nested in large numbers together with Leucoblepharon hutchinsi on the 

 marshes ; the natives gather the eggs at the end of June and bring them by whole boatfuls 

 to Mikhalaska. Although Mr. Adams, who gives this information, says these eggs are 

 not good eating and have a bitter and "fishy" taste, the Russians find them excellent. 



The eggs of these geese (in North America) are of a dull ivory or greyish white 

 colour, and from 70 to 75 mm. (= 2.75-2.90 in.) long, with diameter 48 to 49 mm. 

 (= 1.80-1.85 in.). 



The dimensions of six eggs from the Lena delta (Sogatyr), according to Mr. Gobel, 

 are as follows : — 



1 Avifauna of Laysan and the Neighbouring Islands, by the Hon. W. Rothschild, p. 271. 



2 In spite of this species occurring during the whole summer in South Sakhalin, it can hardly be supposed to nest there. A more 

 probable assumption, in my opinion, is that only bachelors are met with there, or birds left behind during the flight north. 



