WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 19 
out this species as the Goose which ‘‘ lagged’’ behind to 
breed in Britain (as it formerly did, though now only 
doing so in a few places in Scotland) when the rest of 
the wild Geese went north. As, however, the ‘‘ lag ’’ is 
continually getting mixed up with ‘“‘leg’’ and the bird’s 
legs are anything but grey, I have thought it as well to 
drop this suffix, this species having the greyest plumage 
of all our Geese except the Bar-headed, which is well dis- 
tinguished by the marking from which it takes its name. 
The Pink-footed Goose. 
Anser brachyrhynchus, BLANFORD, Faun. Brit. 
ind, Birds. Vol TV, p. 4x8. 
VERNACULAR NAMES.—None known. 
This Goose is smaller than the Gray, with a much 
shorter bill, but much resembles that species in colour- 
ing, though it is darker, but is easily distinguished from 
it and all our other Geese by its bill, which is black at 
the root and on the nail, the intermediate portion being 
pink, as are the feet. There is no black on the belly. 
The bird is about twenty-eight inches long ; the closed 
wing about sixteen, and the bill two, shank three. Semi- 
domesticated birds have been known to produce young 
with orange band on the bill and orange feet, and spe- 
cimens may also occur among wild birds; so that the 
black on the bill is the best character to go by. Such 
orange-billed and footed birds, did any turn up in 
India, might be mistaken for the Bean Goose (Anser 
segetum), which is strongly suspected of occurring here, 
and always has a black-and-orange bill and orange 
feet; but the former member is much larger than the 
bill of the Pink-footed Goose, being as big as in the 
Gray, about two-and-a-half inches, or even larger in 
some cases. 
The Pink-footed Goose breeds in the extreme north 
of Europe, and chiefly visits the western part of that 
