uttered a gentle call-note when any one of their party separated
from the others, or when a bird of prey hovered over
them : this was the only sound that he heard them utter.
They preferred green vegetables to grain, and used to drink
frequently.
Dr. Severtzoff describes this Goose as rare in Turkestan.
At Obdorsk, at the mouth of the Ob, Dr. 0. Finsch says that
it is by no means uncommon; and on the 1st of July Mr.
Seebohm obtained a bird shot from two eggs on an island in
70^°. N. lat. in the Yenesei, near which he afterwards saw
several birds with their broods on the banks of the river.
According to Yon Middendorff, it breeds commonly at the
mouth of the Pasina, and he obtained and figured the first
authenticated eggs on record on the Boganida. Blytli considered
it probable that a Goose shot at Nagpore, out of a
flock of four, belonged to this species.
The winter migrations of the Bed-breasted Goose sometimes
extend to the northern portions of Africa. Specimens
said to have been obtained in Algeria have recently been
offered for sale ; and in Lord Lilford’s collection there is a
specimen labelled by the late Mr. S. Stafford Allen, “ Alexandria,
December 2nd, 1874.” This beautiful species was
evidently known to the ancient Egyptians, for several excellent
authorities have stated that the Museum of the late
Mariette Bey at Boulak, contains a slab obtained at Mey-
doun, on which are portrayed two Bed-breasted Geese,
together with two of the White-fronted, and two of some
larger species. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., says that these
portraits are the best executed, and by far the most life-like
of any bird-pictures that he saw in Egypt; and are probably
the oldest delineations in existence, their age being supposed
to exceed that of the Pyramids. The Editor has consulted
the woodcut illustrative of this slab in Loftie’s ‘Bide in
Egypt ’ (p* 209), and finds its accuracy beyond question.
Little is known of the nesting of this species. An egg
obtained by Mr. Seebohm is of a dull creamy-white, and
measures 2*7 by 1*8 in.
A female of this species obtained in exchange from Holland
in 1858 (‘ List of Animals,’ p. 419), lived many years
in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, and paired with
a male Brent, but did not actually breed (P. Z. S. 1880,
p. 502). This beautiful and tame bird was killed by a savage
Swan in 1870. Its remains are preserved in the British
Museum; and its plumage is fully equal in beauty to that
of the finest male bird, thus clearly proving that externally
the sexes are alike; a fact which has been doubted.
In the adult bird the beak and the nail are almost black ;
the irides hazel; between the beak and the eye a white
patch; round the eye, the top of the head, and down the
back of the neck, black ; on the ear-coverts an angular patch
of chestnut surrounded with white, ending in a white streak
passing downw'ards ; upper surface of the body and wings
very dark brown, almost black; wing-coverts edged with
greyish-white ; upper tail-coverts white; primaries black,
the first about equal in length to the second, and longer than
the third ; tail-feathers black ; throat black ; neck and upper
part of the breast rich chestnut red, ending with a collar of
white: low-er part of the breast black; belly, vent, and
under tail-coverts white; the flanks barred with black;
legs, toes, and their membranes, dark brown, almost black.
The whole length twenty-one or twenty-two inches. From
the carpal joint to the end of the wing fourteen inches.
In the immature bird the auricular patch is whitish with
some rufous-brown in the centre; the chest is merely tinged
with reddish ; and the rest of the upper and under parts are
dusky-brown, except the abdomen and tail-coverts, which are
white.