' Geese of Europe and Asia.' 529 



As to the first species, Mr. Alpheraky unites together 

 the Western [A. anser) and the Eastern form [A. rubrirostris 

 Hodgs.) , for he finds that there is no difference between them. 

 I do not know whether Mr. Alpheraky has drawn his con- 

 clusions from the comparison of such a number of specimens 

 as I had before me in the British Museum, but at the time 

 I thought that the 24 specimens of the Eastern Grey Lag 

 Goose examined by me were sufficiently larger in size and 

 more spotted with black patches on the abdomen to enable 

 me to recognise them as a distinct form. No doubt the 

 differences are small, and it may be a matter of opinion to 

 accept or not the Eastern or Asiatic form as specifically 

 or subspecifically different. Mr. Alpheraky, speaking of 

 another species, says " that there is a general increase of 

 [size in] bills in Geese as we proceed eastwards/' I believe 

 that the Grey Lag Goose follows this rule, and that the 

 Eastern bird ought to be — and, I believe, is — somewhat 

 different from the Western form. 



Among the distinctive characters of the Eastern Grey 

 Lag Goose has been mentioned the bright red base of the 

 upper mandible. This information, which appeared also in 

 the l Catalogue of Birds' (p. 92), I derived from Radde, but 

 Mr. Alpheraky points out that it has arisen from a mistake of 

 Taczanowski and others, who have misunderstood a passage 

 of Radde (Sib. Reis. ii. p. 358), where he mentions a rusty- 

 brown colour, not on the base of the bill itself, but on the 

 feathers round the base of the upper mandible, which, as a 

 narrow band, passes into fiery foxy red. 



The White-fronted Goose (A. albifrons) calls for only one 

 remark, viz. that Mr. Alpheraky lumps with it A. gambeli, 

 which the American ornithologists, and I following them, 

 generally regard as a larger form of A. albifrons. 



The smaller White-fronted Goose only requires to be 

 mentioned on account of the name a Anser Jinmarchicus 

 Gunner " used by Alpheraky in preference to " Anser 

 erythropns Linn." I still think that we must not give up 

 Linnseus's name (cf Newton, P. Z. S. 1860, pp. 339-341). 

 To the synonymy of this species is now added Anser rhodo- 



