THE RED-NECKED AND EGYPTIAN GOOSE. 199 
eastern coast of the kingdom, no specimens are recorded 
to have occurred on the west, although in other years they 
were not uncommon there. They do not remain with us 
during the breeding season, their proper home being the 
arctic regions of both continents. There they make their 
nests of withered herbage on the ground in marshy places, 
and lay their pale, greyish green eggs. While with us, their 
chief food seems to be a sea-plant called the Zostera marina. 
The Eed-necked Bernacle Goose {Anser^ or Bernicla^ 
ruficollis)^ sometimes called the Eed-breasted Bernacle, is 
a smaller and handsomer bird than either of the two pre- 
ceding species ; its general length is twenty-two inches ; 
the throat, upper part of the head, and a narrow band 
down the neck behind, are black, as is also the breast, the 
sides being banded with this colour and white ; the upper 
parts of the body are brownish black, and the under parts 
white; the fore part of the neck is brownish red, and there 
are patches of the same between the bill and the eyes, 
margined with bands of black and white, giving the 
whole a charmingly diversified appearance. This is only 
known in Britain as a rare visitant ; it inhabits the arctic 
regions of Asia, and occasionally makes its appearance in 
various parts of Europe. One specimen was shot in the 
neighbourhood of London, in the severe winter of 1756 ; 
about the same time another was taken alive in Yorkshire. 
In 1813, another severe frost, several specimens were killed 
in Cambridgeshire : one or two others only are recorded as 
having been taken in these islands. 
The Egyptian Fox Goose (^wser, or Ckenalopeco, u^gyi')- 
tiacus), sometimes called, the Egyptian Goose. — A large 
and beautiful bird this, measuring about twenty-eight 
inches in length ; it has a prominent margin at the base of 
the upper mandible of the red bill, and a bare knob on 
the joints of the wings. The eyes are orange red, and a 
space round about them, with a band from thence to the 
base of the bill, is chestnut red ; the rest of the bird is 
cream coloured, shaded with reddish brown along the hind 
part of the neck for half its length, where it enlarges, and 
passes across the neck in front ; the throat is reddish cream 
