420 



Length 30; tail 6; wing 18 ; tarsus 3 : bill from gape 2'1. 



Bill yellow ; irides brown ; legs orange (Jtrdon). Bill orange- 

 yellow to orange, rarely only pale lemon-yellow, the nail black or 

 blackish (Hume}. 



Distribution. A winter visitor to India from October or Novem- 

 ber to March or April, common in the north, rare in the south; 

 breeding in Tibet and Central Asia. It abounds about the course 

 of the great rivers and near large marshes in the Punjab, Sind, and 

 the North-west Provinces, and is far from rare in parts of Bengal, 

 Orissa (it abounds at the Chilka Lake), and Assam. It occurs in 

 Manipur, and Anderson saw flocks on the Irrawaddy above Man- 

 dalay. It is of very rare occurrence in the Bombay Presidency 

 generally, and unknown on the Malabar coast. 



Habits, <$fc. This is by far the commonest Goose of Northern 

 India, where it occurs in small or large flocks, with the usual 

 habits, feeding on grass and crops of wheat, barley, gram, &c. 

 in the morning and evening, and often at night, and passing the 

 day on the banks of a river or lake. The Barred-headed Goose 

 breeds in May and June on the lakes of Tibet such as the Tso- 

 inorari, but the young are generally hatched before the passes to 

 the southward are open. 



Besides the Geese already enumerated, Anser segetum, the Bean 

 Goose, somewhat like A. brachyrliynclius, but larger, with orange 

 legs, is said to have been obtained in India, and is figured by Hume 

 and Marshall in their ' Game Birds.' Hume also had reason to 

 suspect that Anser cyynoides, the Chinese Goose, with a long black 

 bill and orange feet, occurs in Assam ; and Blyth has suggested 

 (Ibis, 1870, p. 176) that four birds seen near Nagpur, one of which 

 was procured, as recorded in the ' Bengal Sporting Magazine ' for 

 1836, vii, p. 247, were probably Berniclu ruficollis. I feel doubtful 

 whether the bird mentioned in the anonymous article quoted was 

 a goose. 



Subfamily ANATIN^E. 



This subfamily, as here denned, contains the typical Ducks 

 together with the Sheldrakes, the Spur-winged " Geese," the 

 Diving Ducks, and the Stiff-tailed Ducks, or the Plectropterince, 

 Fuligulince, and Erismaturince of many ornitholo- 

 gists. The principal character by which these 

 groups are distinguished, the lobation of the 

 hind toe, varies too much in different genera to- 

 be used as a criterion for the distinction of 

 larger groups, there being a considerable amount 

 of passage between forms in which the toe is- 

 Fig 103 Hind simple, through typical Ducks with a narrow 

 toe of (a) Dafila lobe, to the broadly lobed Pochards and Diving 

 acuta with iiar- Ducks ; whilst neither the spiny tail of Ens- 

 row lobe, and matura nor the wing-knob of Plectropterusr 

 ( ^awithbroad" a PP ears to entitle its owner to more than 

 lobe. }. generic rank. 



