Mr. G. F. Gobel on the Eggs of Russian Geese 



This article, kindly placed at the disposal of the author of the present work by the well-known 

 zoologist and oologist, Mr. G. F. Gobel, affords the only satisfactory basis for further oological 

 investigations in the sub -family Anserincz, and on this account presents great interest, so that its 

 publication will, I am confident, be acceptable to all ornithologists. I have made no other change 

 than replacing the original nomenclature by that adopted in the body of this work. 



" The colour of the eggs of all kinds of geese is white, but the shell of some, especially those 

 that are coarse-grained, 1 easily acquires a dingy yellow or grey colouring, probably from the lining of 

 the nest, which becomes damp from the moisture remaining on the feathers of the brooding goose. 

 This colour sinks so deep into the pores of the shell that it cannot by any means be washed off 

 I have never yet seen a pure white egg of Melanonyx arvensis, whose nest is placed on the tundra bogs 

 and near the woody lakes of Lapland. It is always covered with a yellowish layer, while the eggs of 

 Melanonyx segetum, which builds its nest on dry tussocks near the lakes in Novaia Zemlia, are only by 

 way of exception stained throughout yellow, most of them having only yellow blotches, while some 

 are quite white. The eggs of M. brachyrhynckus from Spitzbergen, judging from two clutches brought 

 thence by Mr. A. A. Byalynitsky-Birulei, assume a grey tinge. I accordingly suppose that the water 

 along the shores of the Lapland and Novaia Zemlia lakes must be stained yellow (more often in the 

 former than in the latter country), owing to a peaty or ferruginous soil, which is wanting in the lakes 

 of Spitzbergen, in the breeding-places of M. brachyrhynckus.' 1 



On even a cursory inspection, the eggs of the bean-geese 3 are easy to distinguish from those 

 of other groups by the very coarse grain of their shell ; their surface being extremely uneven. In respect 

 of the coarseness (roughness) or smoothness of the structure of the shell, the eggs of the geese may 

 be placed in the following order, beginning with the roughest : Melanonyx arvensis, M. segetum, 

 M. brachyrhynckus, Chen hyperboreus, Anser albifrons, A. gambeli, A. anser, Eulabeia indie a, Cygnopsis 

 cygnoides, Branta bernicla, B. nigricans, and Rufibrenta ruficolhs. 



As I have not to hand authenticated eggs of other species, I cannot give their characteristics ; but 

 there is good reason to believe that the structure of the shell of those of A . finmarchims resembles that of 

 A. albifrons and A. gambeli. Of A . finmarchicus I have had in my hands only one authenticated clutch, 

 which, unfortunately, in descending a hill was broken. None of the eggs which have been sent me, 

 inclusive of those from Schltiter, proved to belong to A. finmarchicus, but all pertained to other kinds of 

 geese. The structure of the shell of M. arvensis sibiricus and M. segetum serrirostris 4 must be like that of 

 other bean-geese. 



1 Mr. Gobel's MS., although written in Russian, has the expression das korn. 



2 All these hypotheses are very probable, but so far as I know at present, M. brachyrhynckus nests (on Spitzbergen) on rocky cliffs, 

 towering above the sea and not near lakes, which, however, in no way militates against our oologist's supposition in regard to the colouring 

 of the eggs. 



3 i.e. geese which I in the present work put under Buturlin's genus Melanonyx. 



4 And perhaps a third — M. jnentalis, Oates, also nesting in Siberia. 



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