Anser erytliropus and its Allies. 271 



eyes, as will be seen from the accompanying figure of 

 Mr. Coburn's bird (fig. 6, p. 270). For further comparison 

 I think it advisable to give an outline of the head of an 

 Egyptian example of A. erythropus (fig. 7, p. 270). Another 

 important point is that in A. erythropus the eyelids are 

 yellowish, making a definite circle round the eye {cf. Ibis, 

 1901, p. 451). 



Mr. Coburn's Goose may possibly be nearly adult, but I 

 doubt the fact, for it has not much black on the under 

 surface, although shot in the month of January ; he con- 

 sidered the skull smaller than that of A. albifrons, and the 

 eye-sockets nearer to the base of the bill — an osteological 

 difference which, though slight, may be important. 



His bird measured 22 inches in length before it was 

 skinned, whereas the length of a fine A. albifrons, also 

 preserved by him, was 26' 5, and that of another measured 

 by me was 27. 



Its legs, when he received it, were deep reddish orange, 

 having probably changed to that colour from yellow; the 

 bill was fleshy yellow, the nail white with a pink tinge ; 

 the irides were hazel. The colour of the soft parts, and 

 especially of the beak, is a very important feature in Geese, 

 but needs to be noted immediately after death or in life. 

 Linnaeus, when he described A. erythropus as having ''ros- 

 trum sordide carneum .... pedes sanguinei,"" probably had 

 before him an example of this species ; but it must have been 

 one which had been several days dead, and Pallas, unless 

 he copied from Linnaeus, must have been misled in the same 

 way (Zoogr. Rosso-As.). Even Bishop Gunner does not 

 give the colour correctly (see Prof. Newton-'s translation of 

 Gunner in Breeds ' Birds of Europe'). 



It may be worth while briefly to sketch the distribution 

 of A. erythropus so far as it has been distinguished from 

 A. albifrons, which inhabits the greater part of Europe 

 and Asia, but is the less northern species of the two. The 

 nearest place to the British Isles where A. erythropms breeds 

 is the Lofoten Islands in the north of Norway ; thence it 

 extends eastwards to Lapland and Finland and throughout 



