ANSER FABALIS 193 



Total length 32 inches, wing 18, culmen 2-75, tarsus 3. 

 Adult female similar to the male, but rather smaller. 



The Bean-Goose is said to occur in Tunisia in winter, and there 

 is every reason to believe that it does so, the species having been met 

 with in Algeria, not far from the Tunisian frontier. Its occurrence 

 in Algeria has been recorded by Loche, Taczanowski, and Canon 

 Tristram, and according to Taczanowski, it is more abundant on Lake 

 Fetzara than the preceding species. Favier considers that both 

 species are equally common in Marocco, and the present bird is said 

 to have been obtained in Madeira. Colonel Irby, however, states that 

 on the Spanish side of the Straits the present species is much less 

 numerous than the Grey Lag-Goose. In Italy, and particularly in 

 Sicily, the contrary is the case, the Bean-Goose being far the most 

 plentiful of the two. 



In its habits, and in the localities it frequents, the present species 

 resembles the preceding one, though it is said often to stray further 

 inland in search of suitable feeding ground. Its food, however, like 

 that of A. anser, consists entirely of vegetable matter. 



It is powerful on the wing, a good swimmer, and both old and 

 young are good divers, and when moulting and imable to fly, are said 

 to attempt to conceal themselves by diving. 



Loche includes Bernicla hrenta, B. leucopsis, and B. ruficoUis, 

 among the birds of Algeria, as being accidental visitors to that country, 

 and states that he obtained an example of the first mentioned species 

 at the mouth of the Harrach (Expl. Scient. Alg. Ois. ii, p. 362). A 

 male specimen of the Brent-Goose from Lake Fetzara in Algeria 

 is preserved in the Milan Museum, under the Museum Eegister 

 No. 17,945, and is probably the example referred to by Loche. This 

 author also includes as an accidental visitor to Algeria the Egyptian 

 Goose {Chenalopex cegyptiaca). 



13 VOL. II. 



