WILD-FOWL: GEESE 191 



and feet is not in their case constant under the influence 

 of partial domestication, but that some of the young 

 occasionally show orange on their legs and bills, others 

 again having pink legs, and pink on the bill, like their 

 parents. It is on record that the Bean and Pink-footed 

 geese have interbred at St. James's Park, and it is 

 possible therefore that the A. segetum as discovered by 

 the above-named naturalists, may prove on stricter 

 investigation to be but a cross betwixt A. arvensis and 

 A. bmchyrhynchus, presenting as it does so marked a 

 combination of some important characteristics of the 

 two species. 



But this does not quite exhaust the list of geese 

 supposedly new to Great Britain. At a recent meet- 

 ing of the British Ornithologists' Club, Mr. F. Coburn 

 exhibited a specimen of the south-eastern form of the 

 Grey-lag goose to which the title of Anser rubrirostris 

 has been given. This bird was one of five received by 

 the exhibitor from Limerick some time ago. These 

 eastern Grey-lags are larger than our western birds, 

 particularly in the bill and feet, and also have their 

 breast feathers more marked with black. 



In the desire to establish ornithological matters on a 

 proper basis, naturalists, these past years, have been 

 keen to differentiate among the various species of our 

 avifauna. Thus it happens that exceedingly nice 

 distinctions have been made and certain families have 

 been divided into various sub-species and local forms. 

 As a consequence all those not well posted up in these 

 slight differences are, likely enough, at times, somewhat 

 puzzled to identify the geese they come across. For 

 those on goose-shooting bent the following table may 

 be of some assistance ; it gives the long-recognized 



