« ANSER INDICUS lOo 



and evidenth much older than others and might perhaps have heeu 

 laid the previous year. I noticed this in one case in which birds 

 were just being hatched from the fresher looking eggs. These birds 

 seem to lay their eggs in a very promiscuous manner, for I saw 

 many single eggs laid on the grass outside the nests. The Tibetan 

 collectors only take quite fresh eggs, which can at once be known 

 by their clean appearance, as the eggs become soiled with mud from 

 the sitting parent very soon after they are laid. As soon as the 

 eggs are hatched, the birds leave the marsh, and move across to the 

 open water, and are seen in great numbers on the Northern shore 

 of the lake ; and except tlio very freshly hatched birds, I saw uo 

 young ones on the marsh. This lake is frozen over in winter, but 

 at the beginning of March, as soon as some clear pools are melted, 

 a few geese and duck may be seen, and birds remain there until the 

 lake freezes in November. A young bird shot in the beginning of 

 winter has no bars on the liead. The broad black line which in an 

 old bird runs down the back of the neck below the bars is continued 

 on to the forehead, but is not quite so dark on tiie young bird as it 

 is on the old one. Apparently, the only protection which the birds 

 have, is the impassability of the ground between their nests and the 

 shore, as no attempt at concealment of the nests is made. I saw 

 a number of eagles on the marsh, but I tliink most of them were 

 fish eagles. 



" The Tibetan name for the bar-headed goose is ' Angba Karpo ' 

 or more briefly ' Ang Kar ' which means ' white goose.' The 

 Brahminy Duck, which nests in ruined houses and rocks near the 

 lake, is called the ' yellow goose.' I made careful enquiries from 

 the egg collectors as to the presence of any other kind of goose on 

 the lake, and they assured me that the bar-headed goose was the 

 only kind, and I have never seen any other species at any time of 

 the year. 



"After taking as many eggs as I wanted I returned, but sent 

 some men on to see if they could get the eggs of Grus nigricolUs, 

 of which many were feeding on the marsh, and in the evening they 

 brought me one egg and a clutch of tern's eggs. The brown-headed 

 gull {Lams bninneicephalus) was also seen in large numbers, and one 

 egg was brought to me subsequently. 



"The photographs show the individual nests, which appear as 

 white patches, and also the down scattered all over the nesting 

 ground. They also show how the nests are crowded together, the 

 distance between them being frequently less than a yard." 



Captain Stein, I. M.S., Captain Kennedy and Mr. Macdonald took 

 a considerable number of the eggs of this species from the Rhamtso 

 lake, the majority of which have come into my possession or passed 



