ANSER. 



285 



abdomen white ; bill livid fleshy or purplish red, the middle of the 

 upper mandible with an orange tinge ; nail at tip white or yellowish 

 white ; legs and feet orange. 



Length. — 27 to 28 inches^ wing 16 to 17, bill at front 1"7 to 1'9, 

 tarsus 3. 



Hah. — Sind, Beloochistan (Quetta) Persian Gulf (Bussorah) Af- 

 ghanistan (Arghaudab) Punjab, N. W. Provinces and Oudh. 



In Sind the white-fronted Goose is much more rare than the Grey 

 Lag. Mr. Hume says "' that about one bird of this species visits this 

 empire, for every thousand of Grey Lags, or every five thousand of 

 the Barred-headed Geese. '^ In Egypt it is most abundant, also at Fao 

 in Mesopotamia, and on the Caspian, 



Anser indicUS, Lath. ; Gould. G. B. pi. 80 ; Jerd. B. Ind. iii. 

 p. 782 ; Str. F. iv. 499 ; vii. 491 ; viii. 421 ; Murray, Hdbh., Zool., ^c, 

 Sind, p. 234; Hume and Marsh. Game B. Ind. p. 81. Raj-hans, Hind, 

 Sind. — The Barred-headed Goose. 



Head aiid a broad line continued down the sides of the neck white, 

 with a broad black band fi-om behind the eye across the occiput, and a 

 second one on the nape ; chin and throat white ; back of neck dark 

 hair brown ; front of neck the same, but rather paler and gradually 

 passing into the ashy grey of the breast ; upper back, scapulars, breast, 

 upper abdomen and flanks in front ashy grey, the feathers margined 

 with white and forming lunules of that colour; lower back, rump and 

 wing-coverts pale ashy grey ; upper tail-coverts, tip of tail feathers, 

 lower abdomen, vent and under tail-coverts white; axillaries pure 

 ashy grey, feathers of the flanks behind the legs dai-k rufescent or 

 snulf brown, margined at the tip with white ; primaries white shafted, 

 the first four and all the primary coverts greyish, the rest and the tips 

 of the fii'st four as well as all the secondaries dark brown ; wing-coverts 

 like the lower back and rump ; bill orange, with a greenish tinge at 

 the base ; nail at the tip black ; legs bright orange ; h\\\ at front 1"8 

 to 2. 



Length. — 27 — 28 inches, wing 16" 5 to 18-5, tarsus 2 '8. 



Hah. — Sind, Punjab, N. W. Provinces, Oudh, Central Provinces 

 and Bengal. A winter visitant. 



This is certainly the most abundant Goose in Sind, and during the 

 winter may be met in flocks of thousands on the large lakes, and on 

 the Indus. On the Munchur it simply swarms, and not unlike the 

 two other species, alhifrons and cinereus, feeds during the night and 

 in the early morning till about 9 or 10 o'clock. They feed exclusively 

 on tender shoots of grass, and do much damage to the sprouting corn 

 crops, especially in the neighbourhood of the Munchur, also in lower 

 Sind. Taking Upper India (including Sind) Hume says — "This species 

 enormously outnumbers all the other species of Geese put together." 

 I think at least five of the Barred -heads visit India to every one of 

 the Grey Lags, and as for all the rest of the G eese, they are apparently 

 so rai'e, that when one comes to consider numbers, they are not worth 

 speaking about * * *. Their habits are similar to those of the Grey 



