420 THE PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 



Dan.), remarkable, as its Danish name would denote, for 

 its white colour, whose proper home is in the north-eastern 

 parts of Asia and North America, seen on one or two occa- 

 sions on the western coast of Jutland ; the A. brevirostris, 

 Brehm. (Kort-nabet Blis-Gaas, or Short-billed White-fronted 

 Goose, Dan.), of which several specimens, captured also on 

 the- Jutlandic coast, came under his notice ; the A. minutus, 

 Naum. (Dv<zrg-Gaas, or Dwarf-Goose, Dan.), one of the 

 prettiest and smallest of the goose family, breeding in 

 countries to the north and north-east, for instance in Lapland 

 and Russia, which he describes as exceedingly rare in Denmark, 

 and of which he says many skins, and even some living 

 specimens, have been sent of late years from Lapland to 

 Germany ; and the A. arvensis, Brehm. (Ager-Gaas, or 

 Field-Goose, Dan.) in appearance much resembling the bean 

 goose, with which it often is confounded which is, he says, 

 pretty common in Denmark, and has been known to pair 

 and have produce with the domestic goose. 



One or other of these geese probably the A. brevirostris, 

 Brehm. answers, it is to be presumed, to the pink-footed 

 goose (A. brachyrhynchus; Baillon) of English naturalists ; 

 but it is perhaps questionable if even this bird be a separate 

 species. Pink- coloured feet, and a short bill, are said to 

 be its distinguishing marks. The legs of more than one 

 kind of goose, if I mistake not, incline to a pink colour; 

 and should the shortness of the bill be the only cha- 

 racter to be relied on, it amounts to little; for difference 

 of latitude, where animals breed, often causes them to vary 

 in size and appearance. It is not granted that because a man 

 happens to have a somewhat squat nose, that he is a distinct 

 species of the genus homo. 



