390 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



this proved too difficult a task for one not sufficiently master 

 of tlie English language. Still the want of clearness in some 

 parts of my book is solely due to myself, and I can now only 

 say mea culpa ! 



I have given in my work all that I knew about the two 

 alleged Grey-lags — the Western and Eastern — to prove that 

 there is not a single constant character by which they can be 

 separated. It may be that I have seen fewer Oriental Grey- 

 lags than has the Count in the Collection of the British 

 Museum, but I have doubtless examined more West-European, 

 Russian, Caucasian, Central-Asiatic, and Siberian specimens 

 of this bird than had the author when writing vol. xxvii. of 

 the Brit. Mus. Cat. of Birds. It appears from this volume 

 that Count Salvadori had for comparison few Western birds 

 of this species, and only birds from Great Britain and two 

 from Norway (one a chick), whilst his acquaintance with 

 the Oriental specimens was mainly based on the study of 

 Indian birds. I am therefore confident that if he had had 

 before him the specimens examined by myself, with the 

 addition of some examples from the Tian-Shan, where I 

 personally observed and collected Grey-lags, he would have 

 found it a great puzzle to draw a line between the European 

 type and the alleged Oriental form rubi'irostris. 



Now that we positively know that the red bill of " rubri- 

 rostris " has been ascribed to the bird owing to an erroneous 

 translation of Radde's German description ; further, that the 

 average size and weight of the Indian specimens do not 

 surpass in any way the size and weight of the Western 

 birds, and that in no single case has an Eastern Grey-lag so 

 far been found to weigh as much as 13-16 pounds, as some 

 birds have been known to do in Germany (Naumann) ; and, 

 lastly, that some of the Western birds are just as heavily 

 spotted on the under side as are some Indian examples 

 (according to Hume), I really cannot see what other 

 characters are at hand for keeping apart Anser anser and 

 A. rubrirostris. If Count Salvadori woiild only point out a 

 single sufficient character for so doing, I should be the first 

 to acknowledge the Eastern form. 



