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ON THE SPECIES OF BEAN-GEESE. 



BY 



Eugene W. Oates, F.Z.S. 

 {With a Plate.)* 

 (Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 25th March, 1906.J 



Of all our Indian birds, the Bean-Geese are in the most unsatisfactory 

 state, owing to their comparative rarity and, probably, to the fact that 

 they are not recognised by sportsmen and consequently not preserved. 

 There is not a single specimen in the Hume collection. 



When some years ago I was about to write the ' Game Birds of 

 India ' it became necessary for me to investigate this group. I could 

 not find anywhere an Indian-killed skin, but bearing in mind what 

 Blyth, Jerdon, Hume and, more recently, Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker had 

 written, I felt bound to recognise the Pink-footed Goose as the sole 

 Indian Bean-Goose, improbable as its occurrence in India was. 



The acquisition of a specimen of a Bean-Goose from Burma, kindly 

 sent by my friend Captain J. H. Whitehead, gave an additional impetus 

 to my work. The British Museum also about this time received a con- 

 siderable number of Bean-Geese, of two species, from Holland, and I was 

 therefore in possession of plenty of material for study — not quite 

 enough, but about as much as one could reasonably expect. 



When Mr. E. Comber was in England, he saw some beautiful co- 

 loured drawings of the heads of these geese that were in my house and 

 he suggested that I should contribute an illustrated article on the Bean- 

 Geese to the pages of our journal. "Although the time has hardly arrived 

 for it to be possible to write a full and satisfactory account of these birds, 

 yet a beginning can now be made, and I think that my imperfect paper, 

 for such it is, will answer one purpose, — that of enabling sportsmen to 

 recognise a Bean-Goose and also to determine the species. 



The Bean-Geese are found only in Europe and Asia : in summer, far 

 north ; in winter, as low down as the Mediterranean, Persia, India and 

 China. They are not very dissimilar to the Grey Lag-Goose in colour, 

 but they are darker ; have no black bars on the lower plumage • and 

 their bills are coloured with a combination of black and yellow, or black 

 and red, as shown on my plate. 



I have dealt with eight species of Bean-Geese, of which one, A. sege- 

 tum, is not represented in the British Museum and I have not been 

 • For explanation of Plate see page BO. 



