602 



ANSER BRACHYRHYNCHUS. THE SHORT- 

 BILLED GREY GOOSE. 



WILD GOOSE. PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 



" Anser bracbyrbyncbus. Baill. Mem. de la Soc. d'Emul. d' Abbeville, 1833." 

 Oie a bee court. Anser bracbyrhyncbus. Temm. Man. d'Orn. IV. 520. 



Male tic enty -eight inches long ; bill (comparatively) very 

 small, shorter than the head, nearly two inches in length, an 

 inch and two-twelfths in height at the base, seven-and-a-half - 

 twelfths in breadth behind the tmguis, bright carmine, with the 

 broadly elliptical unguis, and the base of both mandibles black ; 

 the tarsus two inches and a half long, pale purplish pink- 

 colour ; the wings a little longer than the tail ; feathers 

 of the neck linear-oblong , disposed in ridges ; head and neck 

 greyish-broicn ; upper parts ash-grey, barred with the whitish 

 terminal margins of the feathers ; hind part of back deep ash- 

 grey ; lower parts pale grey, becoming white behind. Female 

 similar to the male, but smaller. Young with the upper parts 

 brownish-grey, barred with brownish-white; the lower hind- 

 neck reddish-brown, the loiver parts more grey. 



Male in "Winter. — If the name of " Grey Goose " could 

 with propriety be claimed by any one of our three Grey 

 Geese, it is this species to which it ought to be given, it 

 having more grey on the upper parts than even the thick- 

 billed Goose. It is scarcely inferior in size to the Bean Goose, 

 with which it has generally been confounded, although easily 

 distinguishable by its small and differently coloured bill. In 

 its general form and proportions it closely resembles the two 

 species above-named, having the body very large and full, the 

 neck long and slender, the head rather small, ovate-oblong, 

 compressed, and much rounded above. 



