94 INDIAN DUCKS 



Distribution. — Salvadoi'i says regardiDg the distribution of this 



goose : — 



Spitzl^ergen, where it nests, and probably also Franz Joseph 

 Land : during the migration and in winter in North-west Europe ; 

 occasionally it stra> s to Germany, Belgium and France ; its alleged 

 occurrence in India reciuires further evidence." 



In spite of Salvadori's doubt on the subject, this beautiful 

 goose has now been ascertained beyond question to visit India. 

 As long ago as 184y Blyth recorded it from the Punjab, and 

 mentioned it in the ' Catalogue of Birds of the Asiatic Museum.' 

 Thirty years then elapsed before there occurred any further notice 

 of this goose in Indian publications, and then Hume again noted 

 its occurrence (in ' Stray Feathers,' viii). In 1864 he had, how 

 ever, shot two birds of this species in the Jumna, and Colonel 

 Irby also had recorded having seen a specimen killed near Lucknow 

 in January, 1858. Colonel Graham assured Mr. Hume that the 

 species is not uncommon in Assam on the Brahmapootra. 



Again, Major-General McLeod says of this goose: — 



" 1 shot one of these out of a flock of about twenty on the 

 Kunawan bheel, near Gurdaspur, Punjab, in 1853." 



All these records man, however, have referred to other species of 

 bean-geese, most probably to ncgJccius, a goose far more likely to 

 favour us with visits than is hrachijrlijinclius, whose range does not 

 nurmalhj, extend nearly as far as India. 



The Goose in my collection, above referred to, was shot by one of 

 my collectors on a large bheel in the south of Cachar. He said that 

 it was one of a flock of about a dozen, and that they were extremely 

 wary and wild. He went after them several times without obtaining 

 a shot, and at last got it by a tluke. He was stalking some ducks 

 when these Geese, which had been put up by someone else, flew close 

 over his head, and a lucky shot aimed at the front bird knocked over 

 one of the last ones. 



This is the bird referred to by Gates in his article on the bean- 

 geese which appeared in the Bomliay N.H. Society's Journal, and 

 which he also mentions in his manual of ' Game-Birds.' Since these 

 were written I have, in consequence, hunted up, and luckily found 

 my original notes on the Goose, which leave absolutely no doubt as 



