SPUR-WII^GED GEESE. 



325 



sentatives of a distinct family. The lores are naked, and the metatarsus is covered in 

 front with large scutes ; thus differing in both these characters from the geese. The 

 beak is of considerable length and of nearly equal width throughout, terminating 

 in a nail-like knob, and having at its base a large protuberance. In the adult the 

 front of the head is bare and warty, and the cheeks and part of the neck are also 

 naked. The leg is of considerable length, with the lower part of the tibia bare, 

 the metatarsus wide and compressed, and the first toe relatively long, simple, and 

 elevated, the front webs being somewhat deeply incised. In the common P. 



SPUR-WINGED GOOSE (4 HUt. size). 



gamhensis the plumage of the upper-parts and the sides of the breast is black, 

 tinged with coppery green ; the wings are mottled with white, the abdomen white 

 with patches of black behind the thighs, the naked parts of the face reddish, and 

 the beak and legs reddish and orange-yellow. In size the bird nearly equals the 

 English wild goose. The spur- winged goose inhabits tropical Africa, ranging from 

 Senegambia southwards to the Transvaal and Zambesia, being replaced in Abyssinia 

 and the adjacent regions by Rtippell's spur-winged goose (P. rueppelli). A few 

 stragglers have been observed in Britain. In the Sudan these birds are generally 

 found in small parties, which for a considerable part of the year frequent the 



