THE SPECIES OF BEAN-GEESE. 39 



able to examine a specimen anywhere. Mr. Frohawk, however, has 

 found a skin from which to draw the bill (fig. 2). 



There is a ninth species of Bean-Goose, A. came ir ostitis, of Buturlin, 

 of which I can learn little at present. I do not wish to ignore or sup- 

 press it, but I simply have no details of it, and consequently I cannot 

 include it in this paper. It is said to be like A. segetum, but with the 

 pale parts of the bill flesh-coloured. Unless the bill also differs in 

 size and shape, it is hardly likely to prove a species. 



Bean-Geese, under very various names, are of course repeatedly 

 mentioned in books and papers relating to ornithology, but the authors 

 fail to indicate by any precise description the species of Bean-Goose 

 they are writing about ; consequently it is impossible to get any correct 

 notion of the distribution of these birds. Careful writers like Nau- 

 mann, Middendorff, Stejneger and a few others fix their species either 

 by a careful description or by a figure of the bill, and these are the 

 only authors that can be understood. 



Owing, therefore, to the general confusion prevailing about these 

 geese, I determined from the first to deal only with well ascertained 

 facts and to base my paper entirely on the British Museum specimens 

 and those records in which the geese mentioned could be correctly and 

 unhesitatingly identified. Consequently, my paper will be found to be 

 very defective in the matter of the distribution of the species and in 

 many other respects, but it is not intended to be anything more than a 

 sketch, and no further apology is necessary for its shortcomings. 



The identification of the Bean-Geese presents no difficulties if the 

 proper characters are looked for. These consist solely of the size 

 or length of the bill and the relative proportions of its various parts. 

 The length of the bill in each species varies with the age of the bird 

 and may be taken as varying about half an inch in the larger- 

 billed species and a quarter of an inch in the smaller-billed 

 ones. The proportions of the parts are, as far as my experience goes, 

 absolutely constant, and every specimen shot in India will be found to 

 have a bill which corresponds with one or other of the bills figured. 

 I have given measurements of the length of bill in each species. This 

 is taken by a pair of compasses and is the direct straight distance from 

 the edge of the feathered portion of the forehead on the culmen^ or 

 central line of the head, to the tip of the nail of the upper mandible. 

 The other dimensions of the bill, or the proportions of the several 



