SPUR-WINGED ‘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 nat. size). 
gambensis 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 Riippell’s spur-winged goose (P. rueppelli). A tew 
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 
