PINK-FOOTED GOOSE 277 



which the orange on the beak makes a ring behind the nail, appears 

 to be rare in the British Isles, where the ordinary representative 

 of the bean-goose is a bird regarded by some ornithologists as a 

 distinct species, under the name of Anser arvensis. In the latter the 

 beak appears to be rather longer and straighter, with the orange 

 extending over nearly the whole of its upper surface, leaving only a 

 black bar in the middle line, running from a shaft in advance of the 

 nostrils backwards to the base. Whether this colour-phase of the bean- 

 goose is worthy to rank as a distinct species, may be left to the judgment 

 of the reader. Another form of bean-goose, A. neglectus, inhabiting 

 Novaia Zemlia and Kolguev, may perhaps occur in Great Britain. 



Using the term in its original and wider sense, the bean-goose 

 breeds in Lapland and Scandinavia northwards of latitude 64^ as 

 well as in the Archangel district of Russia, Novaia Zemlia, and thence 

 eastwards on the tundra of the Petchora Valley in north-eastern 

 Europe and on that of Siberia in the Yenisei district. Still farther 

 eastward the species is replaced by the eastern bean-goose {Anser 

 serrii'ostris), which winters in China and Japan. The true bean-goose 

 migrates in winter to southern Europe in considerable numbers ; some 

 of the hosts passing over the British Isles on their autumn and spring 

 journeys, and a certain percentage of these wanderers taking up their 

 quarters on our coasts for the winter. The neighbourhood of the 

 Caspian • Sea and southern Russia generally are also favourite winter- 

 resorts of the species. In Great Britain the species is decidedly local 

 in winter ; and in the Humber district and most parts of Norfolk, 

 where it was once supposed to be common, its place appears to be 

 taken by the pink-footed species. In Ireland it is much less common 

 than the white-fronted goose. In accordance with its fondness for 

 cold, the bean-goose leaves the British Isles as soon as winter shows 

 signs of giving place to milder conditions. Bean-geese have recently 

 been recorded from South Uist, in the Outer Hebrides, where the 

 species was previously supposed to be unknown. 



Pink-footed Goose ^"^ ^^^ general colour of its plumage, and more 

 (Ansep bpaehy- especially the bluish-grey lesser wing-coverts (which 

 rhynehus). ^^^' ho^^'^ver, somewhat darker) the pink -footed 

 goose recalls the grey lag ; but it is at once dis- 

 tinguishable by the feature from which it takes its name, as well as by 

 the pink band across the middle of the beak, and the extension of this 

 pink area backwards on each side below the nostril, leaving the " nail " 

 and a broad space above the nostrils black. The gander measures 



