602 The Zoologist— February. 1807. 



two in the flocks of female chaffinches. The sexes, as far as my own 

 observations go, separate into flocks about the first week in 

 November. 



Pinkfooted Goose.— December 8th. A goose belonging to this 

 species was brought to me to-day ; it was shot in the marshes 

 adjoining the Humber, and, as the man informed me, was one of a 

 small flock of three he had seen on the grass-lands. This bird differs 

 in some respects from the dimensions given by Yarrell of Anserbrachy- 

 rhynchus, and independent of YarrelVs description I cannot find any 

 other reliable authority wherewith to compare it. It appears to have 

 been unknown to Montagu, and Gould gives no figure of the bird ; 

 neither is it mentioned in the late Mr. Wheelwright's Synopsis of the 

 Scandinavian Fauna. I have copied the following remarks from my 

 note-book ; they were made the day after the bird was shot : — " Anser 

 brachyrhynchus. Total length of goose from tip of bill to end of tail, 

 thirty-one inches and a half. From carpal joint to end of second quill, 

 eighteen inches. Length of bill, one inch and eleven-twelfths ; depth 

 of bill at base, one inch and one-twelfth. Length of head, from base 

 of bill to back of head, two inches seven-twelfths. Nostrils oblong ; 

 length of nostrils, two-fifths of an inch. Lateral laminae very apparent. 

 Iris, hazel-brown. Bill pale waxy pink, deeper along the lateral edges. 

 Nail and a space running backwards from the nostrils to the base of 

 the bill, bluish black. Second quill the longest ; first and third nearly 

 equal ; fourth much shorter. Tail of fourteen feathers. Closed wings 

 extending about one inch and a half beyond tail. Tail dark gray, 

 broadly edged and tipped with white. Feet very muscular; joints 

 large ; hind toe very small. Feet and legs pale fleshy pink ; claws 

 bluish black, white at the base. The late Mr. St. John, who was well 

 acquainted with these geese, remarks, a It is a finer bird, and more 

 distinctly shaded and marked, than the beau goose ; the general colour 

 of the plumage is lighter." Also " When a flock of bean geese alight 

 on a field to feed, it may be observed that a small company of the 

 birds often separate and feed aloue j these will be found to be the 

 pink-footed." 



Great Spotted Woodpecker. — December 10th. When shooting to- 

 day I saw one of these scarce woodpeckers in a small plantation of 

 oak in this parish: being anxious to procure a specimen, I tried for 

 some time to get a shot at it, and might have done so had it not been 

 for the pertinacity with which the bird, the moment I brought my gun 

 up, dodged behind the trunks and greater branches of the trees, when 



