58 ANATID.E. 



greyish white ; under tail-coverts, and the under surface of 

 the tail-feathers, white ; legs, toes, and membranes, dull flesh 

 colour ; the claws black. 



The whole length of an adult male thirty-five inches ; the 

 wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the second quill- 

 feather, which is the longest, seventeen inches and a half; 

 the wings when closed scarcely reaching to the end of the 

 tail- Both males and females have a hard callous knob at 

 the point of the wing, which varies in size in the different 

 species of geese. The males in this genus are larger than the 

 females. An adult female measured thirty inches in the 

 whole length, and sixteen inches in the wing. Mr. Bartlett, 

 who has paid great attention to the plumage of these birds, 

 says, the young of this species are darker than the adults, but 

 the grey colour of the shoulders and rump, the form of the 

 bill, and the colour of the legs and feet, will always distin- 

 guish them from the young of any of the other species. 



I have ventured to make an exception to the figure placed 

 over the name of the Grey Lag Goose in Bewick's admirable 

 work on our British Birds, believing it to have been taken 

 from a specimen of the Bean Goose, as the black nail at the 

 end of the beak, and the uniform colour of the wing, seems to 

 indicate. His excellent figure of the tame Goose, at page 

 304, exhibits the characters of the true Grey Lag Goose, 

 from which the stock is derived, in the conspicuous white nail 

 to the beak, and the light coloured cinereous blue outer por- 

 tion of the wing. 



