328 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



you the remains of the Wild Goose shot near here, for inspection at the next 

 meeting of the Linnean Society. I am sorry that I have only the parts 

 enclosed herewith. The particulars of the bird's taking are as follows : — 

 It was seen feeding in some meadows at about two miles from this town, 

 near the village of West Buckland. A farmer either disturbed it, or shot 

 at it, I am not sure which, when it rose and flew away for a mile or so, 

 afterwards returning to the same meadow, where it was then shot by the 

 same farmer's son. This occurred at about the middle of January last, and 

 it was not until a week or ten days afterwards that I heard of the occurrence, 

 and on visiting the farmer found that the bird had been eaten, the parts now 

 preserved being all that remained. These parts I sent to Mr. Cecil Smith, 

 of Lydeard House, uear Taunton, and he expressed his opinion in a letter 

 to me that the bird was a specimen of the Lesser White-fronted Goose, in 

 its first year." — W. Gyngell (14, Fare Street, Wellington, Somerset). 



Lesser White-fronted Goose in Somersetshire. — As I am responsible 

 for naming the Goose exhibited by Mr. Crisp at the meeting of the Linnean 

 Society on the 5th of April last (referred to on pp. 176, 195), I should like 

 to give as shortly as possible my reasons for so naming the bird. The very 

 small size of the parts sent as compared with the same parts of any other 

 of our wild Grey Geese struck me immediately. Though evidently, from 

 the small exteut of white on the forehead, an immature bird, the small size 

 could not be attributed to immaturity ; as the bird was shot in January, 

 it would by that time have fully attained the size of an adult. The next 

 point was the shape of the head, the forehead and the ridge of the bill being 

 in the same line (cf. Yarrell, ed. 4, vol. iv. p. 263: "Its small size, short 

 straight-ridged bill forming a line with the forehead, on which the white 

 extends beyond the line of the eye "). This certainly applies to the present 

 specimen, for though an immature bird, the position of the white is clearly 

 to be traced on the forehead, and extends directly over the centre of the eye. 

 The bill measures 1 T 8 S in., as against 2 \ in. in Anser albifrons; tarsus 2£ in., 

 as against 2 - 65 in., not very far from 2f in. in Anser albifrons; wing from 

 the carpal joint to the end of the second quill, which is rather the longest, 

 16 in., as against 17 in. in A. albifrons. It is of course useless to compare 

 it with A. segetum or A. brachyrhyncus: the white on the forehead and the 

 colour of the nail of the bill immediately distinguish it from these two, 

 although both of these occasionally show a narrow streak of white over the 

 bill in the winter, but by no means to such an extent as either of the two 

 White-fronted Geese, in both of which, of course, the white is constant. 

 Anser cinereus being considerably the largest of all the British Grey Geese, 

 it is unnecessary to compare the measurements of the remains in question 

 with that bird. Of course it is not so easy to judge, from the fragments sent, 

 between two somewhat similar species, as it would have been had the entire 

 skin been sent ; but it certainly seems to me, in spite of what was said at 



