86 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



good many to be seen about the meadows. These birds can at once 

 be distinguished from the Grey-lag by the beak, which (as Mr. 

 Cecil Smith points out in his paper on bird distinctions, read before 

 the Society at Taunton in 1883) in the one is pink and the other 

 orange, with the edges and base black, the nail also being black. 

 They were for some time thought to be but varieties of the same 

 species, but it seems to be decided that they are quite distinct from 

 each other. My friend, Mr. Cecil Smith, who has kept some of 

 the pink-footed species for some years on his pond, writes thus : 

 ''The colour, however (of the leg), does not appear to me to be 

 constant, as some I have kept in a state of semi-domestication, and 

 bred from for some years, have, in some instances, had the light part 

 of the bill and the legs and feet orange ; as bright and decided an 

 orange as the orange-legged species ; in this state they are very- 

 like, and if shot would no doubt be recorded for. Orange-legged 

 Bean Geese." He also writes that " where one of them has once 

 assumed either the orange or pink beak and legs it does not change ; 

 the colour then appears to remain constant. You cannot, however, 

 tell from the young in the down whether those parts will be pink 

 or orange ; as the legs and bills of the young ones are all a sort of 

 dark oil-green." *' There is. no difference," he adds, " that I can see 

 between male and female." But Meyer mentions many points of 

 decided difference which cannot be overlooked. The pink bird, he 

 says, is known to breed in great numbers in the western islands o£ 

 Scotland, while the orange-legged bird breeds farther north ; while 

 the eggs of the two species differ materially, the eggs of the pink- 

 legged bird being considerably less in bulk than those of the orange, 

 especially in their transverse measurement. They differ, also, con- 

 siderably in colour, being white without any tinge of yellow. The 

 measurements of the birds themselves, he also gives as differing 

 considerably. The adult male of the pink bird being only 2 Sin. in 

 length, while the orange is 36in. There is a difference, also, in the 

 time of their arrival and departure. The arrival of the orange-leg 

 being by far later, and its departure in the spring earlier, than that 

 of its pink-footed relative. In one statement, however, he is cer- 

 tainly wrong, for he adds that " the feet and legs differ so materially 



