THE RED-BREASTED GOOSE. 

 Bernicla ruficollis, Pallas. 

 Plate 44. 



This beautiful species occasionally visits Great Britain during the winter months, 

 two having been obtained about the same date (1776) in Middlesex and in Yorkshire, 

 another at Berwick-on-Tweed (1818), a fourth in Essex (1871), and the last in 

 Gloucestershire (1909). Others are said to have occurred in England. 



In summer the Red-breasted Goose inhabits the tundras of western Siberia, 

 nesting in the valleys of the Obi and Yenisei, and migrating in winter to the 

 Caspian Sea and other parts of Asia. Occasionally it visits Western Europe, and 

 in far-away times was certainly known to the inhabitants of Egypt, though rare in 

 that country at the present time. The late Lord Lilford owned a specimen labelled 

 "Alexandria, December 2nd, 1874, which was figured in his work on British Birds. 



What is said to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, picture in existence, 

 painted some five or six thousand years ago, the well-known slab from a tomb at 

 Maydoom, Egypt, gives a most accurate representation in colours of a pair of these 

 birds. I have in my possession a photographic reproduction of this fresco in black 

 and white, which shows that the painter must have drawn them from life and was 

 familiar with the species. In the same group are also shown two of the Lesser 

 White-fronted Geese and an equal number of a larger species, either the Grey- Lag 

 or Bean-Goose, these last depicted in a most natural manner browsing on the 

 herbage. 



Mr. H. L. Popham found four nests of the Red-breasted Goose situated at the 

 foot of cliffs on the Yenisei in 1895. The eggs varied in number from seven to 

 nine, and were creamy-white in colour. 



The bird feeds on grass and other herbage, and, according to Radde, who 

 observed it during winter on the Caspian Sea, it associates in flocks, which frequent 

 pastures by day and retire to the water at night. 



Young birds in their first plumage lack the rich black and chestnut of the 

 adults ; the ear-patch is brown mottled with white, the neck and breast reddish- 

 buff, and the upper parts, which are black in the old birds, are brown. 



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