44 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XYIl. 



But in turning back to Mr. Stuart Baker's descriptions of the birds he 

 has on two occasions recorded from India as A, brachyrhynchus we are 

 met by a very grave difficulty. In the latest record (Journ., Bombay 

 Nat. Hist. Soc, XV., p. 718, 1904) he states that the bill was of a 

 " brilliant crimson-pink ; commissure of mandible yellowish ; nail black, 

 but the edges paler." Now in this description no mention is made of 

 any portion of the bill (except the nail) being black, and consequently 

 I am under the impression that the specimen could not have been a 

 Bean-Goose at all, but rather an example of Anser erythropus, the 

 Small White-fronted Goose. Of course I go on the assumption that 

 Mr. Stuart Baker's description of the bill is correct and that there was 

 no black on the bill. 



Again in his previous description of another specimen shot in India 

 (torn. cit. XI., p. 359, 1898) he states that the bill of the specimen in 

 question, a dry skin, was " now of a uniform dirty grey-white," and he 

 accounted for the bill of a Pink-footed Goose being of this peculiar 

 colour by stating that the skin had passed through a series of accidents. 

 I feel bound however to express my opinion that no accident of any 

 kind could ever obliterate the black colour which is found rather ex- 

 pensively on the bill of a Pink- footed Goose and of every other kind 

 of Bean-Goose, or convert it to a dirty grey-white colour, uniform with 

 the remainder of the bill. Under these circumstances I shall now expel 

 the Pink-footed Goose from my list of Indian birds. 



This species visits Great Britain in winter and at that time of the 

 year also occurs generally over North- Western Europe. It breeds in 

 Spitzbergen, whence I have seen specimens with nest and eggs. It 

 appears also to breed in Iceland. Of all the species of Bean-Geese, it 

 is the one least likely to be shot in India. 



4. Anser neglectus, Sushkin (fig. 4). 

 Sushkin's Bean- Goose. 



This is an excellent species, easily separated from the others by a mere 

 inspection of the bill, which is much larger than that of A. brachyrhyn- 

 chus, much smaller than that of A. arvensis and more slender than that 

 of A. segetum. The bill is still more markedly different from that of the 

 following four Asiatic species (figs. 5 — 8). 



The pale parts of the bill of this species in life are pink, and this 

 Goose is probably the species which Blyth and Hume recorded as 

 A. brachyrhynchus. The pink colour is chiefly confined to a ring 



