420 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



and one or two other specimens have been recorded as obtained 

 in Upper India. 



The White-fronted Goose is a rather rare visitant, I know, 

 to Oudh, and probably other parts of Upper India and Assam, 

 and is not very uncommon on the rivers of the North- West 

 Punjab. 



The Pink-footed Goose I have shot, but only once, and then 

 in the Etawah District. Colonel Irby obtained specimens near 

 Lucknow, and Colonel Graham tells me that he believes it to 

 be not uncommon in Assam. 



Both the Grey Lag and the Barred-headed Goose are com- 

 mon over large portions of the Empire. Even of these last 

 two species, the distribution in India is very imperfectly 

 known, and in preparing the third volume of the Game Birds 

 I find myself quite unable to state, as regards many parts of 

 the country which I have not myself visited, whether they are 

 or are not frequented by these species. 



As regards the other rarer species scarcely anything is 

 known of their distribution in India, and this is probably due 

 to the fact that they are not readily distinguished by sportsmen. 



To facilitate the identification of these several species of 

 Geese, I append below a table which will enable any sportsman, 

 I believe, to distinguish the species of any one of these six 

 Geese which he may shoot, and I would urge all who have the 

 opportunity during this next cold season to shoot all the difi'er- 

 ent kinds of Geese they can, make sure of their species, and 

 kindly let me know what species they have obtained, and in 

 what districts. 



But beyond this I would ask all those sportsmen who are 

 fortunate enough to procure specimens of either the Pink-foot- 

 ed or the Bean Goose to preserve the skins and forward them 

 to me. The reason is, that under the general name of Bean 

 Goose at least three, and perhaps four, well-marked sub-species 

 are included, differing in size and tone of color, size and shape 

 of bill, and amount and distribution of black and yellow on 

 the bill, namely, arvensis, segeium, ohscurus, middendorji, — and 

 we are still quite in the dark as to which of these it is, and 

 w^hether more than one of them occurs in India, and nothing 

 but the examination of skins by a competent ornithologist can 

 decide this point. 



In the same way there are, I suspect, two separable species 

 included under the title of the Pink-footed Goose. The two 

 specimens I shot were unfortunately not preserved (it was 

 many years ago I got them), and I have never since succeeded 

 in meeting with other Indian-killed specimens for careful 

 examination. 



