600 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVU. 



then took my letter to Mr. Oates at the British Museum, where both these 

 gentlemen compared the type of mentalis with Stejneger's drawing of the bill 

 of the Bering Island bird, and decided that I was right in this identification. 



Still, although I am sure that the bill figured by Mr. Stejneger represents 

 mentalis, I cannot recognise, as Mr. Oates evidently does, in Mr. Stejneger's 

 description of the two other specimens from the same locality the mentalis, and 

 I think that, most probaoly, both of tbem belonged to middendorffi. 



Mr. Oates further says, that J have not devoted a single line to his original 

 description of mentalis, and s. o. But I really think that I have said in my 

 book everything that is to be found in Mr. Oates' original description. 



That the white chin is of absolutely no value as a specific character in the 

 Bean-<ieese, as also now thinks the Author, I have clearly shewn in several 

 places of my book. 



I also believe having said that, personally, I do not think mentalis is anything 

 but a huge-bided geographical race of segetum (or serrirostris, which is only 

 the Eastern form of segetum), but that the question is not to be settled before 

 a sufficient number of specimens of this Goose can be carefully studied. I 

 also have given in my book all the pros and cons of the question, and if ever 

 it is proved that mentalis is really a separate species, I shall be the first to 

 con f ess my error and to acknowledge the fact. 



7. Anser serrirostris, Swinhoe (Bill. fig. 7). 



Contrarily to Mr. Oates' statement, this Goose is not only known from 

 Swinhoe's description, but from the writings of several authors. It is true 

 that Taczanowski, Przevalsky, Schrenck, Maak, etc., have spoken of it under 

 the name of A. segetum, but all these segetum from Eastern Siberia and China 

 are most decidedly serrirostris, as is confirmed by the specimens in the 

 Zoological Museum of St. Petersburg and other skins from the extreme East 

 of Asia I have had the opportunity of studying. 



In all these specimens the light parts of the bill have been noted (by the 

 collectors) as yellow or orange-colour, not in a single instance as pink or flesh- 

 colour. 



Still, if Mr. Oates had really paid a little more attention to the book he 

 so severely condemns, he would have seen that I have mentioned three 

 specimens of serrirostris from the Anadyr river, in which the bills had the 

 light parts flesh-colour in life (but they are yellow now in the dry skins ). 



I do not wish to say anything more about this Goose, as it shall soon be 

 done by Mr. Buturlin, who has had the opportunity, last summer, of 

 studying and collecting this Goose in its breeding grounds, and this too in 

 considerable numbers. It is better to wait for what Mr. Buturlin has to tell 

 us about the bird from personal observation than to continue to discuss the 

 question over only a few dry skins at our disposal. 



* Mr. Oates' plate represents the colour of tho serrirostris bill of the same tint as are 

 those of brachyrhynchus and neglectus, but we know that it could not have been copied from 

 a freshly-killed specimen. 



