240 Allen’s naturalist’s library. 
of the fore-neck, and shading off into pure white on the lower 
abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts ; the sides of the body 
and flanks mottled with broad white edgings to the feathers, 
before which is a shade of brown ; under wing-coverts and 
axillaries slaty-grey; bill, feet, and toes black; iris dark brown. 
Total length, 2i'o inches; culmen, i'35 ; wing, 12'7 ; tail, 
4-6; tarsus, 2'i. 
Adalt Female. — Similar to the male, but a little smaller. 
Young Birds. — Paler grey and having the neck entirely black, 
and may be distinguished by the whitish edges to the wing- 
coverts and scapulars, which gives them a spotted appear- 
ance. 
Characters. — The Brent Goose is easily recognised by the 
abnormal length of the upper and under tail-coverts, which 
reach to the end of the tail-feathers, and occasionally even 
beyond them, so that the tail is almost completely hidden. 
The head in the present species and its allies is entirely black. 
The under-parts are greyish, or whitish, contrasting strongly 
with the black of the neck and chest. 
There are two forms of the Common Brent Goose, both of 
which occur in England and appear at first sight to be specifi- 
cally distinct. The true Branta dernida, which is supposed to 
range from the Taimyr Peninsula to Novaya Zemlya, Franz- 
Josef Land, and Spitsbergen, has the belly dark grey, and Mr. 
Seebohm considers the form with the whitish belly, B. glaum- 
gaster, to take the place of the common Brent from the w'est 
coast of Greenland to the Parry Isles. These tw'o races are 
further supposed to be distinguished from the Pacific Brent, 
B. nigricans (which has the belly nearly as black as the throat 
and chest), by the white markings on the sides of the neck, not 
meeting in front. This last is not a specific character, for it 
is found occasionally in both the dark and light forms of the 
Common Brent. Although the series of specimens of these 
Geese in the British Museum is not a large one, it is sufiicient 
to show that intermediate specimens between the light and 
dark forms often occur, and I agree with Count Salvadori that 
they cannot be separated as races. Nor is the restriction of 
each race to a separate geographical area, as propounded by 
Mr. Seebohm, confirmed by recent researches, for a specimen 
