Mr. A. D. Bartlett on the Pink-footed Goose. 419 



Notice of the Occurrence of the Pink-footed Goose, 

 Anser PHCENicoPUS. By A. D. Bartlett. 



On the 8th of January 1839 I had the pleasure of hitroducing 

 this species for the first time to the notice of the Society as a 

 new British bird ; and although since that period many examples 

 have been from time to time obtained, I am not aware that they have 

 ever appeared in such large numbers as at present. Since the 3rd of 

 this month upwards of a hundred specimens have been seen and 

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

 Counties. The old males weigh about 6 lbs., the females 5 lbs., and 

 young birds 4| lbs. The length of the males is about 2 feet 6 inches, 

 the females 2 feet 3 inches, measuring from tip of bill to end of tail. 

 The length of the bill varies from 2^ to If inches in length. I 

 mention this, as too much importance has been attached to this cha- 

 racter (in the Geese), which has led Mr. A. Strickland to regard and 

 describe the old male Bean-Goose as a new and distinct species*. Of 

 this latter bird I here exhibit an old male whose bill is upwards of 

 2f inches long. I also exhibit a female Bean Goose, bill 2i inches 

 long ; this latter is an adult female, having been kept in the Gardens 

 of this Society nearly two years. 



January 22, 1861.— Dr. J. E. Gray, V.P., in the Chair. 



Dr. P. L. Sclater called the attention of the meeting to an important 

 addition lately made to the Society's Menagerie. On the 18th instant 

 Her Majesty the Queen had transferred to the Society's care a female 

 of the iElian's Wart-Hog {Phacochcerus jEliani, Riipp. Atlas, i. 

 pi. 2.5), which had been lately received from Bathurst in Western 

 Africa by the steamer ' Armenian,' as a present to Her Majesty from 

 the King of Ashantee, through the Governor of the Gold-coast. This 

 species was stated to be distinguishable from the "Wart-Hog of 

 Southern Africa (P. cethiopicus), of which the Society already pos- 

 sessed a specimen, by the presence of two upper incisor teeth (which 

 are wanting in P. cethiopicus when adult), as well as by other very 

 noticeable external characters. 



Dr. Sclater also exhibited a specimen of the American Meadow- 

 Starling (Sturnella ludoviciana), shot in Suffolk a short time since, 

 and lent to him by the Rev. Henry Temple Frere, of Burston Rectory, 

 for examination. This was the first instance of the occurrence of 

 this bird in Europe. 



A letter was read, addressed to Dr. Sclater by Dr. G. Bennett, 

 F.Z.S., relative to a singular Grallatorial bird living in an aviary in 

 Sydney in November 1860, which had been brought from New 

 Caledonia by M. Des Planches. A drawing of the bird was also 

 exhibited, which was stated by Dr. Sclater to represent the same 

 species as that lately described in France as Rhinochetus juhatus, 



* See Ann. and Mag. N. H. ser. 3, vol. iii. p. 121, where the old male Bean- 

 Goose (Anser segetum) is described as a new species under the name of the 

 Long-billed Goose (Anser paludosus). 



