346 THE BIBBS OF NOBTHAMPTONSHIBE 



174. PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 



Anser hrachyrhynchus. 



For an account of the original scientific separation 

 of this species from that last described, I refer my 

 readers to the 4th edition of Yarrell, and will only 

 say on this subject that one of the differences there 

 alluded to — " the pink colour of legs and feet " in 

 the present bird — is not constant or to be certainly 

 depended upon. I am now disposed to think that 

 many of the Geese that formerly visited the valley 

 of the Nen, and were considered by us to be Bean- 

 Geese, were of this species. I can speak Avith 

 certainty as to two captures, at least, of the Pink- 

 footed Goose near Lilford — one shot by myself in 

 March 1853 as it arose alone from .the river near 

 Achurch, and another killed by a gamekeeper from 

 a flock near Tichmarsh in December 1860 ; but 

 several wild Geese have been killed by our keepers 

 at various times in my absence from home before I 

 devoted much attention specially to the birds of our 

 county, and, of course, to the mind of the average 

 gamekeeper a wild Goose was a wild Goose and 

 nothing more. I have seen many hundreds of Geese 

 in West Norfolk that I have very little doubt 

 belonged to this species, which is certainly more 

 abundant in East Anglia than elsew^iere in our 

 country, but I must confess that, if I had not been 

 aware of this fact, having of course no means of 

 comparison at hand, I should have taken these 

 Norfolk buxls for Bean-Geese from their cries and 

 general appearance. Spitzbergen and Iceland are 

 the only two breeding-places of this Goose mentioned 



