1 92 1.] Birds of North- East Chifili, 41 



like a tiglit-rope dancer along the sharp -edged ridge or 

 coping of the wall. 



280. Anser middendorffi Severtz. 

 Anser segetum D. &: O. p. 491 (part). 

 Anser middendorffi La T. p. 583. 



A specimen of the Great Bean-Goose Avas shot at Cliin- 

 wangtao on the 29th of October, 1911, and two at the Hsieh 

 Chia Ying marshes on the 29th of March, 1913, and in March 

 1914. Besides these I have one from Shaweishan,at the mouth 

 of the Yangtse, and there is another shot at ru-an,in north- 

 eastern Fohkien, on tlie 3rd of January, 1914, which is in the 

 British Museum (Natural History). This fine Goose, which 

 may be distinguished at a glance from the other Bean-Geese 

 found in the Far East l)y its very long and large bill, is not 

 very rare on the coast, aVid it is strange that it should 

 have been overlooked by Swiuhoe. It is, however, by far 

 the least common of the Chinese Beau-Geese. Tang Wang- 

 wang, my former collector at Foochow, wrote to me this last 

 winter that this Goose was very abundant in January 1916 

 in the Shanghai market. Two males in my collection from 

 Shaweishan and Hsieh Chia Ying measure 19 in. in the wing. 

 The bills in five specimens measure as follows : Culmen 

 72 mm. to 86 mm. Number of teeth 24 to 29. 



Mr. Sowerby, in his ' Sportsman's Miscellany,' mentions 

 the shooting of several of these Geese on the Yangtse, where 

 he states they are numerous. The weight of one, shot by 

 Mr. H. E. Gibson of Shanghai, is given in this work (p. 90) 

 as having been 13^ lbs. 



281. Anser albifrons (Gm.). 



Anser albifrons U. & O. p. 492 ; La T. p. 583. 



The White-fronted Goose is quite common in spring. 

 It passes in March and during the first half of April, 

 I have no record of the autunni passage. 



The soft parts of birds shot are : — Bill pinkish-flesh, 

 nail white; legs orange j the rim of the eyelid is brown. 



