214 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



vivid than in immature. Claws White. Two other 

 noticeable features of the adult are: (i) White feathers at 

 base of bill ; and (2) Black or dark brown spots on the 

 abdomen ; these characteristics becoming more accentuated 

 with age. 



Sergius Alpheraky, in Geese of Europe and Asia (p. 27), 

 seems to have experienced difficulty in the matter of the Grey 

 Lag. Thus, it appears, he wrote to Mr Frohawk : " . . . That 

 in the yellow orange colouring of the bill, the subcutaneous 

 layer of fat plays the chief part, I have no doubt, as I main- 

 tain also in the case of the White-fronted Goose. . . . 

 However this may be, yet, speaking of migratory Grey Lag 

 Geese, no responsible author mentions their having orange 

 bills. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey writes, for instance, that in 

 England 'the bill (of the Grey Lag Goose) is of a uniform 

 flesh colour, except the white nail. Legs and feet are flesh 

 colour.' " 



How far the presence or absence of this fat underlying 

 the skin affects the soft parts of the species in question I 

 cannot say, but in the case of crippled or " pining " birds this 

 is obvious. Wounded birds, which are shot or captured a 

 week or more after their first mishap, undoubtedly undergo 

 a rapid change of colour, all the soft parts fading to an ashen 

 grey or sickly blue tinge. I shot a Grey Lag one September 

 morning in 191 1, which was a mere skeleton, and weighed 

 but 4 lbs. 10 oz. It was an adult $ , but so emaciated that 

 the bill had become ashen white, nail white, legs and feet a 

 bluish grey. Mr Peel, in Wild Sports in the Outer Hebrides 

 (p. 115), with reference to the Grey Lag Goose, writes: 

 " I will pass over the general appearance of the bird beyond 

 remarking that the bill of the Grey Lag Goose is brilliant 

 orange, not ' flesh-coloured,' as is so often wrongly asserted 

 in bird books. The nail at the end of the bill, however, is 

 flesh-coloured." 



Here we have a written statement by Mr Peel through 

 whose hands many Geese killed in North Uist, Benbecula, 

 and South Uist must have passed. Concerning the flesh- 

 coloured nail, this has never been apparent to me in freshly 



