68 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



Family ANA TWsE. 



PINK-FOOTED BEAN GOOSE. 



Anser brachyrhynchus, BAILLON. 



THE late Mr. Seebohm (" British Birds," vol. iii, p. 498) thinks this Goose 

 can scarcely be considered more than a local race or inland form of A. 

 segetum. I think most ornithologists, if the question was put to them, would be 

 in favour of its specific identity, and that it ought not to be relegated to the rank 

 of a sub-species. It may be that the Pink-footed Goose is still undergoing a 

 process of differentiation, and that its specific characters are not yet fully established. 

 It is somewhat suggestive that the very characters by which it claims specific 

 rank, are not constant, either in the wild bird, or in those reared in domestication. 

 In the typical A. brachyrhynchus, the bill is much shorter, and also deeper at the 

 base, than in A, segetum, and the middle portion of the bill, the legs and feet, 

 are pink in the former, and yellow in the latter. After the Pink-footed Goose 

 has been dead a few days, the legs sometimes turn almost red in colour. 



I have, during the last forty years, seen several examples of Grey Geese, 

 which in the size and proportions of the bill, as well as the colour of the central 

 part, and the legs and feet, make it extremely difficult to diagnose the species ; so 

 great has been the divergence from either the Pink-footed or Bean Goose, that I 

 have thought can there be a fifth British Grey Goose an Anser medius not yet 

 recognized by ornithologists. 



Broods of the Pink-footed Goose, bred in captivity by Mr. Cecil Smith, 

 contained individuals shewing orange in bills, legs, and feet, and their colour 

 remained permanent ; Lord Lilford says that he has kept several of these 

 birds at Lilford, where they are constantly on the water, and keep apart from 

 the other species of water fowl, and he has no hesitation in saying he has seen 

 quite as many with orange coloured as with pink legs. 



Whatever the former position of the Pink-footed Goose in Great Britain, the 

 balance of evidence is now in favour of its being the most common of the four 

 Grey Geese which come in the autumn. 



Anser brachyrhynchus was first recorded as a British species in 1839, by the 

 late Mr. T. Bartlett. It is, however, a remarkable fact that this bird was known 



