BEAN GOOSE. 31 



and tlie yellow on the bill of the Beeston bird extends 

 further towards the base. Again the nail in both these 

 specimens is pure black, but though the claws in the 

 Beeston bird are all black but one, in the other they are 

 all a light horn colour, except the two middle claws, 

 which are black margined with white ; and in two of my 

 adult pink-footed geese, at least one claw on each foot 

 is white, and in one all the claws are parti-coloured.* 

 Subject, however, to such slight variations, the chief 

 distinctions between the bill and feet in the bean 

 and pink-footed geese are thus accurately given by Mr. 

 Harting in his "Birds of Middlesex:" — Bean: bill, 

 orange ; nail, edges and base black ; legs, orange. 

 Pink-footed : bill, pink ; nail and base black ; legs, 

 pink, tinged with vermillion, like Egyptian goose. To 

 this may be added a further distinction pointed out by 

 Macgillivray, derived from " the knobs on the roof of the 

 upper mandible," the bean goose "having five series, 

 besides the two lateral rows, separated each by a deep 

 groove from the marginal series of lamellae;" whereas 

 the pink-footed *' has only three series of knobs, besides 

 the two lateral rows of shorter and more flattened 

 knobs, separated each by a very shallow groove from the 

 marginal lamellse." I have found this correct as to both 

 species, but in some examples these rows of small knobs 

 are much less distinct than in others. 



ance of white feathers at the base of the bill, the birds have shown 

 evidence of maturity in their general plumage. 



* Thompson (" Birds of Ireland ") in describing a fine bean 

 goose which weighed eight pounds ten ounces, says, " Upper part 

 of naU of the bill white ; a central stripe of the same colour, on the 

 nail of the lower mandible ; on part of the nails of the middle toes 

 a whitish tinge ; nails of outer and inner toes of both feet white and 

 pale horn colour ; bill and toe nails otherwise coloured as usual." 

 He also refers in a foot note to a remark of Colonel Montagu's 

 (" App. to Sup. of Orn. Diet."), that in the white-fronted goose 

 the nail is occasionally black. 



