PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 19 



two sent me from Lynn, in mistake for the bean goose, 

 which were shot at North Wootton on recently reclaimed 

 land ; and on the 16th of February, Mr. A. W. Partridge 

 met with a flock of from two hundred to two hundred 

 and fifty wild geese at Wretham, on some young rye. 

 They were extremely wild, but he made a long shot at 

 a lot of five or six that separated from the rest, and 

 bagged one which proved to be a young pink-footed, 

 and probably most of the grey geese observed in that 

 neighbourhood, presumed to be bean geese, are of this 

 species. 



Mr. Alfred Newton, in the " Zoologist" for 1850 

 (p. 2802), mentions an example of this goose, shot 

 at Wretham, in January of that year, "remarkable 

 for a few white feathers round the base of the bill 

 similar to the principal characteristic of the white- 

 fronted goose, but not extending nearly so far on the 

 forehead and cheeks as in examples of that species." 

 I had never till last winter (1870-1), remarked this 

 peculiarity in the pink-footed goose; but one of the 

 birds sent me from Lynn, on the 3rd of January, 

 has a narrow line of white feathers all round the 

 base of the upper mandible, and a few stray ones 

 seem to indicate that it might, in time, have extended 

 further. This bird is apparently fully adult, judging 

 from the extent of grey on the wings and back, the 

 deep red colour of the legs and feet, and the size and 

 colour of the bill, as also the specimen shot at Aiimer, 

 which has the very slightest indication of the same 

 variation; but the companion bird from Lynn, whose 

 feet and legs were much lighter, though resembling 

 the other two in the size of the bill and in general 

 plumage, has no indication of the white front,* nor did 

 it occur in any other examples that I examined during 

 the same season. 



* These three specimens all proved to be males. 



D2 



