494 BRITISH BIRDS. 



serrirostris *. The eastern form is specially remarkable for its large bill 

 and feet, the former measuring from the frontal feathers to the tip from 

 1*7 to 2'5 inch in western examples, and from 2'4 to 3'4 inch in eastern 

 examples. The colour of the head and neck of the eastern form is generally 

 huffish brown, whilst that of the western form is brownish grey. 



The habits of the Bean-Goose differ much less than might be expected 

 from those of the Grey Goose when we consider that the former is a winter 

 visitor to many places in which the latter is only known during the breeding- 

 season. The Bean-Goose is not only a smaller bird, but it is also a bird of 

 more rapid and powerful flight ; nevertheless it is still more shy, and 

 takes even greater care to avoid danger. It is quite as gregarious as its 

 congener, some of the flocks which come over in autumn being of enormous 

 size. It does not differ in its food, being entirely a vegetable-eater, and 

 especially fond, during its winter sojourn with us, of frequenting the 

 stubble-fields. Its various notes closely resemble those of the Grey Goose, 

 and it frequents the same kind of localities both in the breeding-season and 

 in winter. 



Though it breeds far away in the high north beyond the Arctic circle, 

 it is quite as anxious to reach its summer-quarters as the Grey Goose 

 is. On its spring migration it hangs on the outskirts of the frost, 

 ever ready to press forwards and occupy any patch of open water that may 

 be found, and continually being driven back when the north wind gets the 

 upper hand for a day or two and freezes up its supplies. Both in the 

 valleys of the Petchora and the Yenesay I had ample opportunities of 

 watching its movements. The first arrivals of adventurous, not to say rash, 

 birds appear in small parties. In European Siberia the first announcement 

 of the Bean-Goose was a solitary bird on the 10th of May, but east of the 

 Urals I saw the first on the 9th of May. Several small flocks passed our 

 winter-quarters during the next fortnight, but on the 23rd the wind changed 

 again to the north. Every patch of open water was frozen hard, and 

 during the 24th and 25th all the flocks we saw were flying south. Then 

 came the grand crash on the 1st of June the ice on the Koorayika was 

 broken up for the season, and that on the great river south of its junction 

 with its smaller tributary became a mass of pack-ice and ice-floes, whilst 

 to the north the level of the water had risen so much that, as far as the 

 eye could reach, open water could be discerned on each side of the main 



* The synonymy of the eastern form is as follows : 



Anser segetum, var. serrirostris, Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 417. 

 Anser middendorffi, Severtzow, Turkest. Jevotn. pp. 70, 149 (1873). 

 Anser grandis, Gmel. apud Middendorff, Schrenck, Radde, &c. 



This bird must not be confounded with Anser cygnoides (of which Anser grandis is pro- 

 bably the young), a perfectly distinct species, with a black bill, a broad, sharply defined, 

 dark-brown band along the back of the neck, and flesh-coloured legs and feet. 



