THE BRENT GEESE. 
243 
water. I'he boats did not dare to close in, for fear the Geese 
should break. It was a ticklish moment — the Geese would 
not make the land. At last a single old Goose, a Bean he 
was, stepped out and ran up the bank. He was quickly 
followed by one or two more, and then by the first of the 
Brent. And now that they had started they went quickly 
enough, scrambling after one another, and heading into the 
net. Over the green they ran like a Hock of domestic Geese. 
Sometimes they aimed for right or left, but then the children 
showed themselves and the Geese were turned. 'I'he last bird 
was in, and then we closed the rear. Not a Brent had flown, not 
a Brent had dived, not one escaped. Of all that army every 
bird was in the net— a dense black moving mass.” The kill- 
ing of the Geese took some time, and then they were divided, 
and ultimately cached. “The turf cut round with the axe, 
where the cloudberry grew thickest, was torn up with the 
hands ; then the Geese were stood on their tails with their 
heads tucked in, till the girls had made a circular group some 
three or four yards across. Then the turfs were rolled back 
on them a double layer, and the packing was complete.” 
Nest. — The nest has been described by Colonel Feilden, 
■who found the species breeding in 82^^° N. lat., during the 
expedition of the Alert and Discovery to the Arctic Regions. 
The eggs were laid in the third week of June. The nests were 
situated on the sloping hillsides between the snow-line and the 
sea, and were placed in a slight depression of the ground, with 
a good foundation of grass, moss, and the stems of saxifrages, 
and plentifully lined with a warm bed of down. 
Eggs. — Four or five in number •, creamy-white, with a slight 
gloss. Axis, 2-6-2-95 inches; diam., iTS-i'p. 
III. THE RED-BREASTED GOOSE. BERNICLA RUFICOLLIS. 
Anser ruficolUs, Pallas, Spicil. Zool. fasc. vi. p. 21, tab. v. 
(1769); Seebohm, Br. B. iii. p. 515 (1885). 
Bertiicla rnficollis, Macg. Br. B. iv. p. 634 (1852); Dresser, 
B. Eur. vi. p. 403, pi. 416 (1876 ) ; B. O. U. List Br. B. 
p. 119 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yarn Br. B. iv. p. 281 
(1885); id. Man. Br. B. p. 395 (1889); Lilford, Col. 
Fig. Br. B. part xxi. (1892); Salvad. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. 
xxvii. p. 124 (1895). 
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