28 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



"Bill short, strong, and deep, the depth at the base being 

 nearly two-thirds of its length ; pale red in the middle, black at the 

 extremities, but varies much in the proportions of these colours. 

 Old birds nearly as large and pale coloured as the grey-lag." 



This unquestionably is an accurate description of the 

 adult pink-footed goose, and I have already pointed 

 out the marked affinity between the old pink-footed 

 goose and the grey-lag in the dove-coloured tints of 

 the back and wings. It is impossible, however, to rely 

 upon the measurements of the bill* for specific distinc- 

 tion, inasmuch as that feature varies in size, in a very 

 remarkable manner, in different specimens. 



Mr. Strickland's description also of the pink-footed 

 goose is taken evidently from an immature bird 



" Bill, nearly the same proportions and colours as the last, but 

 smaller and weaker ; bird less and darker coloured." 



and this (as he ignores the pink-footed goose, as a 

 species), he considers the young of his A. segetum, which 

 it undoubtedly is, though under the specific title of 

 brachyrhynchus. Next, as to his supposed new or re- 

 cently extinct species, Anas paludosus, his account is as 

 follows : 



" Bill long and weak, being exactly twice the length of its depth 

 at the base. This is the bean goose of Mr. Yarrell's and Mr. 

 Gould's drawings, but not of their descriptions. The colour of the 

 bill is like that of segetum, and equally various." 



I have not access at the present time to Mr. Gould's 



* On this point, in the " Proceedings" of the Zoological Society 

 for 1861 (p. 19), Mr. Bartlett writes, " Since the 3rd of this month 

 (January) upwards of a hundred specimens have been seen and 

 examined by me, most of them having been killed in the Eastern 

 Counties," and adds, " the length of the bill varies from two and a 

 quarter inches to one and five-eighths in length ; I mention this, 

 as too much importance has been attached to this character (in the 

 geese), which has led Mr. A. Strickland to regard and describe the 

 old male bean goose as " a new and distinct species." 



