252 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Breeding-habits. — Nests on Yenisei obtained by Popham were 

 all placed about half-way up steep slope of river-bank, while in 

 each case Peregrine or Buzzard was breeding on cliff above. Nest. — 

 Hollow thickly lined with down, mixed with grass. Eggs. — 7 to 9 

 according to Popham, creamy-white. Average of 7 eggs, 66.6x46. 

 Max.: 69.5x46 and 68.5x47.3. Min. : 63x44.8 mm. Breeding- 

 season. — End June and early July. Incubation. — Only females 

 shot from nest. Period unknown. Single-brooded. 



Food. — Apparently grazes on young shoots of grass almost ex- 

 clusively, but Saunders also adds " green vegetables." 



Distribution. — England. — Very rare vagrant. One near London 

 early 1776. One near Wycliffe (Yorks.) about same time. One 

 Berwick-on-Tweed (Northumberland), 1818. One Maldon (Essex), 

 Jan. 6, 1871. Two said to have been got south Devon, and 

 one Norfolk (Saunders, p. 407). One Severn (Gloucester), Nov. 

 18, 1909 (Brit. B., m, p. 376). Others recorded, but not sub- 

 stantiated. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Nests in tundras of western Siberia ; 

 winters in great numbers on Caspian Sea, in steppes of Transcaspia 

 and parts of Persia, passing through south Russia, the Khirgiz 

 steppes, and parts of Turkestan, casually in France, Italy, Holland, 

 Belgium, Germany, Galicia, Hungary, and even — at least in ancient 

 times — in Egypt. 



BRANTA LEUCOPSIS 



296. Branta leucopsis (Bechst.)— THE BARNACLE-GOOSE. 



Anas lettcopsis Bechstein, Orn. Taschenb., 11, p. 424 (1803 — Germany). 

 Bernicla leucopsis (Bechstein), Yarrell, iv, p. 286 ; Saunders, p. 409. 



Description (Plate 5). — Adult male and female. Winter. — Fore- 

 part of crown, sides of face, chin and throat cream- white or light 

 buff, some feathers when fresh with faint dusky or brown-black 

 tips (in some feathers of chin and upper-throat spotted blackish 

 forming irregular streak) ; lores brown-black ; feathers at base of 

 upper mandible and those extending on to lower mandible in some 

 more or less tipped brown-black ; rest of head, neck, mantle and 

 upper-breast black, feathers of mantle with grey bases often im- 

 perfectly concealed and narrowly tipped brownish-white ; scapulars 

 ash-grey with broad subterminal bands of brown-black and narrowly 

 tipped brownish-white, or white, lower scapulars and back dark ash- 

 grey, tipped brown-black ; rump black ; sides of back and rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts white ; sides of body and flanks palest ash- 

 grey, feathers with subterminal bar or shading of dusky-brown and 

 broadly tipped white ; thighs black, feathers usually narrowly 

 tipped white ; axillaries ash-grey ; under wing-coverts ash-grey, 

 mostly tipped white and some with subterminal dusky-brown 

 shading ; remaining under-parts white ; tail-feathers black ; 



