TO RUSSIA AND BACK. 1/ 



The Museum, of which M. Alf. Dubois is curator, contains 

 22,500 specimens. The Macqucen's Bustard (killed in the 

 vicinity in 1845,) has a beautiful ruff, equal I think to the 

 finest Houbaras which I obtained in Algeria. It appears 

 that* two others were killed with it. The Great Auk seemed 

 (for it was getting dark when I got round to it,) to be a 

 well-stuffed specimen, in summer plumage of course. It 

 was bought of Frank, through w^iose hands several have 

 passed, twenty years ago, when they were not considered to 

 be extinct, for 150 francs in the skin. As far as I remem- 

 ber, all the Great Auks which I examined had the ribs on 

 the bill white, (cf. Zoologist, 1642). 



I must now mention a Goose in the Zoological Gardens 

 which had pink legs, and yet from the length of its bill was 

 an undoubted Bean Goose. Curious as this is, it is not 

 more so than the converse which has happened in Somerset- 

 shire to Mr. Cecil Smith. That naturalist has recorded 

 (Zoologist, 3412, 3627, 4333,) Pink-footed Geese of his own 

 breeding with yellow legs, but as they were that colour in 

 early youth, it is not to be taken as any corroboration of 

 Strickland's exploded notion that the Pink-footed Goose 

 was the young of the Bean. Strickland's " Bean Goose " 

 was Bartlett's true Pink-footed Goose. Both these writers 

 agreed that the Geese with black nails to their beaks were 

 divisible into two species, but they differed about the names 

 which should be applied to them. Now that the distinc- 

 tions are properly understood, it appears clear that the 

 Pink-footed is much the commoner, and that many even of 

 the more recent records of " Bean Geese " must be taken as 

 referring to it. I happened last June to see living examples 

 of both in an enclosure together, and there is no tangible 

 difference in plumage. Practically the best marks to seize 

 on are those originally published, viz., the short bill, smaller 

 stature, and pink legs of the Pink-footed Goose, and also 

 the middle of the beak pink, as opposed to the yellow 



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