SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — LA MELLIROSTRES — ANSERES. 



A. faba'lis. (Lat. /afcafe, relating to beans ; /afea, a beau.) European Bean Goose. Bill 

 l(jug, black and orange, the nail black or dusky; feet orange; claws black. Head and neck 

 grayish-browu ; back darker grayish-brown, the feathers margined with grayish-white; rump 

 blackish ; upper tail-coverts white ; wings brown, more gray on the coverts, these and the 

 secondaries edged with white. Below from the breast plain brownish-gray, fading to white on 

 the vent aud crissum. Sexes aliiie, and young little diti'erent. Large: length 30.00 or more; 

 wing 18.00-19.00; tail 6.50; tarsus about 3.00; bill along culmen 2.25 or more. Europe, 

 Asia, and Africa ; only North American as casually occurring in Greenland, aud only re- 

 cently established as such, though long ago given hypothetically as a bird of this country ; 

 e. g. Bean Goose, A. segetum Nutt. Man. ii, 1834, p. 348 ; Ridgw. Man. 1887, p. 116. Anser 

 fahalis Salvad. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii, 1895, p. 99 ; A. 0- U. List, Eighth Suppl. in Auk, 

 Jan. 1897, p. 118, No. [171.1]. See Auk, July, 1896, p. 244. 



A. al'bifrons. (Lat. alhiis, white; frons, forehead.) European White-fronted Goose. 

 Exactly like the next to be described (gambeli), but latter rather larger, with especially larger 

 bill, as given in the above analysis. The iutergradatiou is complete, but average dimensions 

 constantly differ. Length perhaps never 30.00; wing not over 16.00; tarsus under 3.00; bill 

 under 2.00, usually under 1.75, along culmen, and depth of its upper mandible at base under 

 1.00. Only North American as occurring in Greenland. 



A. a. gam'beli. (To Wm. Gambel.) American White-fronted Goose. Laughing 

 Goose. Yellow-legged Goose. Harlequin Brant. Gray Brant. Pied Brant. 

 Prairie Brant. Speckled Brant. Speckle-belly. Tail normally 16-feathered. Bill 

 smooth; the laminae moderately exposed. Adult ^ ^: Bill pink (very pale lake or carmine), 

 the nails white, a small space on culmen, a space on lower mandible, and edges of nostrils, 

 chrome-yellow. Feet chrome-yellow, webs rather paler. Eyes dark brown. Claws white. 

 A white band along base of upper mandible, bordered behind by blackish. Upper tail-coverts 

 white. Under parts whitish ; breast and belly more or less extensively patched or blotched 

 with black, in high plumage mostly black ; sides of rump, and tlie crissum, white. Head and 

 neck dark grayish-brown, paler on lower neck in front, where passing into the whitish black- 

 blotched breast, darker on the front, where sharply contrasted with the white face. Back dark 

 ashy-gray, the feathers anteriorly tipped with brown, farther back with pale gray. Seconda- 

 ries and ends of primaries dusky, more ashy toward base ; primary coverts and outer webs of 

 primaries ashy ; greater coverts and secondaries bordered with whitish ; primaries and coverts 

 edged and tipped with white; shafts of quills white. Young (A. frontalis Bd.) : Darker, 

 browner; the gray and ashy colors rather brown; base of tail not pure white; no white on 

 face, which is darker than rest of head ; no black on under parts ; bill obscured, the nail brown 

 or blackish ; feet pale. Length 27.00-30.00 ; extent about 60.00 ; wing 16.00-17.00 ; tail 5.50 ; 

 tarsus 2.75-3.10; middle toe and claw rather more; bill up to 2.00 or more along culmen, with 

 depth of upper mandible at base averaging 1.00. 9 averaging rather less than J. North 

 America at large, breeding in the far North, even to the Arctic coast, wintering in the U. S., 

 in greater numbers on the Pacific side than in the interior or along the Atlantic (where rare), 

 and extending at that season into Mexico, Lower California, and Cuba; also on the A.siatic side 

 of Bering Sea, and S. to Japan. Eggs 6-7, 2.90-3.30 X ahout 2.10, elliptical, smooth, dull 

 yellowish with an olive shade, in places discolored with a darker tint. 



CHEN. (Gr. x^", chen, a goose.) Snow Geese. Bill about as long as head, very stout 

 and high at base, where higher than broad, the under mandible very deep ; tomial edges 

 much bevelled off, and receding from each other, leaving an elliptical space, in which the large 

 prominent teeth are fully exposed. Nostrils in basal half of bill. Feet as in Anser, but tarsus 

 if anything longer than middle toe and claw. Color of adults white, at least on head, usually 

 all white except black-tipped wings; bill and feet reddish. (Grammatical gender of the name 

 •common, masculine preferred.) 



