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XXVII. 
NOTES ON BIRDS OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE DURING 
THE YEAR 1910 . 
By William Bickerton, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 
Read at Watford , 27 th March , 1911 . 
At the commencement of 1910 there were 227 species on the 
register of Hertfordshire birds, and one addition only has to 
be made to this number for the year. This is the Brent Groose 
(.Bernicla brenta), an adult female of which species is reported 
by the Hon. Walter Bothschild to have been picked up dead, 
but quite fresh, near the village of Marsworth, on the boundary 
of Herts and Bucks, on March 10th. Of the eight species of 
geese on the British list only three have hitherto been recorded 
for Herts, viz., the Grrey Lag-goose (. Anser cinereus ), the White- 
fronted Groose ( Anser albifrons), and the Bean-goose ( Anser 
segetum). The brent-goose is the smallest of the eight British 
species, and is referred to by Saunders in his ‘ Manual,’ as 
follows:—“ The Brent is the most abundant and generally 
distributed of the geese which visit us, and is found in varying 
numbers on the coasts of Grreat Britain—particularly the east 
and south—throughout the cold months of the year. Unless 
wounded it is seldom seen on inland waters, and it passes a 
great part of the day and night at sea; while at other times it 
frequents the extensive mud-flats and sand-bars on the shore 
which are exposed at every ebb-tide. Immense flocks resort to 
the vicinity of Holy Island on the Northumbrian coast, and 
multitudes have been observed in some seasons on the Cromarty 
and Dornoch Firths. In the Orkneys it is common, though 
local, while it visits the Shetlands annually; but in the Hebrides 
and along the west side of Scotland it is less numerous and less 
regular in its visits than the bernacle. Vast quantities occur in 
many places on the shores and estuaries of Ireland. In cold 
weather the brent goose migrates to the Faeroes, the coasts of 
Scandinavia, and the shores of Europe generally ; occasionally 
reaching the Asiatic and African portions of the Mediterranean, 
and even so far south as Mogador. It seldom occurs in Iceland, 
and the Danish Expedition did not obtain it in East Greenland, 
but it breeds on the west side and on the opposite shores of 
Grrinnell Land up to 82° 30' N. In varying numbers it nests in 
the Spitzbergen archipelago, Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, 
Kolguev, and the coasts and islands of Arctic Siberia; near 
Kolguev, indeed, it must be abundant, judging from Mr. Trevor- 
Batty e’s experiences.” And further on he states : “ Colonel 
Feilden describes a nest in Grrinnell Land as composed of 
a foundation of grass, moss, and stems of saxifrage, with 
a warm bed of down for the eggs, laid by June 21st, and usually 
VOL. xiv. —PART IV. 
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