408 NOTES. 



Mr. Dresser, for instance, figures as Anser cinereus the bird 

 with the pink bill ; but, as far as can be judged, there are two 

 distinct species of Grey Lag Geese, both with flesh-coloured feet, 

 both with white or yellowish white nails to the bill. One with 

 the bill orange, the other with the bill pink fleshy, livid pur- 

 plish pink, &c. I take it that this difi'erence in the color of the 

 bill is of specific value, because I have killed thousands of Grey 

 Lag Geese in India, and all have invariably had pinky bills. 



Now the true cinereus, as described by Meyer, has the bill 

 " pale orange red." Naumann, too^ both figures and describes 

 the bill in the same way. He says distinctly : — " Bill orange, 

 without black, naked eyelids and feet pale flesh color." 

 Macgillivray, too, gives the bill as yellowish orange ; this too 

 is ferns of Stephen, who says, beak orange yellow. 



This then appears to be the true cinereus, and not the bird 

 figured by Mr. Dresser, and I may note that apparently these 

 yellow-billed birds have the front of the neck and breast a great 

 deal more conspicuously barred than is ever the case with the 

 species figured by Mr. Dresser. 



The species figured by Mr. Dresser appears to be vulgaris of 

 Pallas, who says, '' bill, feet and eyelids reddish;" and it is also 

 of course the ruhrirostris, of Hodgson. 



This too is the bird described by Yarrell, who says, " bill of 

 a pink flesh color.'" 



Apparently, therefore, there are two species of the Grey Lag 

 Goose, both of which occur in Europe, but only one of which, 

 so far as I can ascertain, occurs in Asia; but this is a point in 

 regard to which I can only throw out suggestions ; the matter 

 can only be properly cleared up by ornithologists in Europe. 

 It is not altogether impossible that the cinereus form may be 

 the summer plumage, and the vulgaris the winter. 



Then I notice that Mr. Dresser quotes Anser sylvestris, Briss., 

 Orn. VI., p. 265, as a synonym of cinereus, whereas clearly 

 sylvestris of Brisson is the true segetum of Bechstein, for Brisson 

 says, '' bill blackish from the base for nearly half its length, 

 then saffron yellow, and black at the tip." How Mr. Dresser 

 could imagine this description to refer to the species he figures 

 as cinereus I cannot understand. 



Then I notice that Mr. Dresser includes, though with a 

 note of interrogation, Naumanu's Anser segetum as a synonym, of 

 hrachyrhynchus, which, however, he says is not the segetum of 

 Gmelin. Now the segetum of Naumann is, it appears to me, 

 certainly the segetum of Beehstein, and it is also, I should say, 

 the segetum of Gmelin, " pedibus croceis, rostrum medio ruhescens, ■ 

 basi et apice nigrum.^^ And, judging from Naumann's explana- 

 tion, I should guess that his Anser arvensis, which is what most 



