64 INDIAN SPOETING BIRDS 



called Baj-hans as well as the bar-headed, and s,\Ym\di.x\y Kangnai 

 is used in Manipar. The Nepalese name Mogula is, however, 

 quite distinct. 



Pink-footed Goose. 



A)iser hraclujrhynchus. 



Although Hume noticed in a pair of these birds he shot 

 from among a flock of greys in 18G4 on a sandbank in the 

 Jumna, that as he looked down upon them from a cliff above 

 "they were conspicuous by their smaller size, clove-brown 

 colour (that is what they looked at a distance), and very pink 

 feet," some allowance must be made for variation. The feet of 

 the grey-lag are sometimes about the same shade as those of the 

 pink-footed, and the tone of the plumage also varies, as well as 

 the size, the pink-footed sometimes weighing as much as the 

 smaller grey geese. 



The real distinguishing point is the bill, which is black at the 

 base and tip, only pink on the intermediate space, in young birds 

 only a band nearer the end ; the pink is sometimes very rich — 

 carmine, in fact — and sometimes, both on the bill and feet, verges 

 on or is replaced by orange. The slaty-grey inner half of the 

 wing, however, which resembles the same part in the grey 

 goose, though darker like the rest of the plumage, will distinguish 

 a pink-footed goose whose feet are not a true pink from the 

 orange-legged bean-goose ; besides which the bean-goose is a 

 big-billed bird, the beak being two and a half to three inches, 

 while the pink-footed, as indicated by its scientific name, which 

 means " short-billed," has a particularly small beak, only a 

 couple of inches long, and narrow in proportion. 



The pink-footed goose is one of our winter rarities, but has 

 been reported on several occasions, though actual specimens 

 have very rarely been preserved. It has been reported from the 

 Punjaub, Oudh, Assam, and the Shan States, and Mr. E. C. S. 

 Baker has one procured in Cachar. This specimen was got by 

 a fluke by one of his native collectors out of a very wide-awake 

 flock of about a dozen, and a Hock of twenty has been reported 

 from the Punjaub. 



