THE BRENT GOOSE. 

 Bernicla brenta, Pallas. 

 Plate 44. 



This salt-water species, in ordinary circumstances never leaving the sea-coast 

 unless wounded, is by far the most numerous of the geese which come to our 

 shores in the winter. According to Millais, the Brent is only a very rare straggler 

 to the Orkneys and Shetlands, while its " most noteworthy resorts are the islands 

 in the Cromarty and Moray Firths, where it is exceedingly abundant." It is 

 also very numerous along the east coast to the south of England. The mud-flats 

 near Holy Island, Northumberland, is a favourite resort, where vast numbers arrive 

 during January and February. Large flocks also visit the Irish coasts. In spring 

 the Brent Geese leave us for their breeding stations in the Arctic regions, including 

 Spitsbergen, Novaya Zembla, Kolguev, Greenland, and eastern North America. 

 There are two forms of this species, both of which visit the British Islands, one 

 coming from America having the flanks and underparts of a lighter grey, and 

 the other, a darker bird, from Arctic Europe and Asia. 



The Black Brent, B. nigricans, found on the western side of North America 

 and Arctic Asia, distinguished by a white collar almost encircling the neck, and 

 by the black on the breast being more widely spread over the lower parts, is said 

 to have been obtained on several occasions in England, but, according to the 

 B.O.U. "List of British Birds" (1915), "its occurrence must be regarded as by 

 no means proven." 



Colonel Feilden, who found the nests of the Brent in Grinnel Land, describes 

 them as being made of grass, moss, and the stems of saxifrages, and plentifully 

 lined with down. The four or five eggs are creamy-white in colour. 



The cries made by a flock of these geese have been often likened to the 

 sound made by hounds, and no doubt gave rise to the superstition current in 

 old days among country people, that packs of clamorous and shadowy spectre- 

 dogs, known as Gabriel's Hounds, coursed through the air on cloudy nights. 



Mr. Abel Chapman, who has given us an interesting account of the habits 

 of the Brent in his Bird-Life on the Borders, says : " Speaking generally, they 

 spend the night at sea and the day on the tidal oozes, but never (like the Grey 

 Geese) go inland to feed on the fields, or travel a single yard beyond high-water 

 mark." 



