392 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



a state of things when it was thought possible to call the 

 Grey -lag Anas anser ! 



Of still greater interest to me are Count Salvadori's re- 

 marks on the two Geese killed near Venice and sent to him 

 by Count Arrigoni degli Oddi, as they tend to shew that these 

 specimens make the author doubt the specific distinction of 

 Melanonyx arvensis and M. segetum. Thus we learn that 

 these specimens have the bills intermediate in sculpture 

 between those of the two species as described and figured in 

 my book. The bills are, respectively, 63 and 57 mm. in 

 length, and their nails are contained in total length of 

 culmina " only four times." Further, says the Count : 

 " These have the yellow part of the bill more extended on the 

 sides towards the base, and have a narrow line of white 

 feathers round the base of the bill." 



All these characters taken together clearly shew that 

 the Venetian birds are genuine young, of the first year, of 

 M. arvensis : — 



(1) Because in no single instance have I come across a 

 white line of feathering round the base of the bill in the 

 young (or old) M. segetum, though I have done so on several 

 occasions in the young of the first year of M. arvensis; 

 (2) because this character in the birds from Venice coincides 

 with the extension towards the base of the bill of the yellow 

 colour; (3) because in the young of M. arvensis (first year) 

 the nail normally occupies but one-fourth part of the total 

 length of the culmen, as stated on page 1 12 (third line from 

 the bottom) of my book, which fact is never observed at any 

 age in M. segetum ; and (4) because I have handled a con- 

 siderable number of freshly killed (as also skins) of young 

 M. arvensis that agreed well with the details given by Count 

 Salvadori of the birds from Venice. That freshly killed birds 

 have been obtained by myself and friends out of gaggles 

 of typical M. arvensis, and in a locality in Finland where, 

 during a period of six years' shooting, we never saw a gaggle, 

 nor even a single individual of M. segetum, is a positive fact, 

 and that I have eagerly looked out for M. segetum, but have 

 never yet obtained one in the flesh, is another fact. It is true 



