604 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NA TORAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI J. 



carneirostris has only the legs of the said colouring, and the band of the 

 bill is pinkish flesh-coloured. The head is also somewhat darker. The 

 bird breeds on Novaja Zernlia (where A. neglecius and A. arvensis also 

 breed, but no typical A. segelum) and it was lastly procured on migra- 

 tion in Ufa Government (west of Ural range). 



Anser middendorffi, Severtz — A specimen of this eastern or Mid- 

 dendorff's race of Common Bean- Goose is said to have been obtained at 

 Myitkyina on the Irrawaddy, a $ with wing 18 inch, bill 2*75 inch, 

 with traces of golden fulvous on head. It is scarcely doubtful that this 

 Myitkyina bird is a typical A. arvensis, Brehm. Adult males of 

 A. arvensis not uncommonly have bills longer than 2*75 (70 m/m), 

 and wings much longer than 18 inch. Such specimens I met with, 

 not only on Novaja Zemlia, but in the western half of Russia also 

 (lake Ilmen, Novgorod Government). But never have I seen an 

 adult bird (with the yellow on the bill developed) (# or even 9 ) of 

 the eastern bird (A. middendorffi, Auct.) with culmen shorter than 

 73 m/m (2*87 inch.), and the males ordinarily have it much longer, 

 and wing longer than 18'5 inch. I may add, that the breeding range 

 of typical A. arvensis includes Central biberia, where (as also in 

 Turkestan) A. middendorffi, auctorum, does not occur. Shades of head- 

 feathering have no diagnostic value. 



As to the name of the eastern race (or perhaps quite a good species) 

 Mr. Oates states " Mr. Alpheraky has bestowed a new name on this 

 goose on the ground that we do not know to which species of Bean-Goose 

 Severtzoff's name A. middendorffi applies." It is almost unneces- 

 sary to say that Mr. Alpheraky says nothing of the kind. Every 

 careful reader of Mr. Alpheraky's capital work can see (p. 105), that 

 this author studied all the Bean-Geese of Severtzov's collection, includ- 

 ing the types of A. middendorffi, and found them all to be ordinary 

 A. arvensis. I may add, that this was only to be expected, as no one 

 has ever met with true Middendorff's Bean-Goose ( Le. with the bird 

 described and figured by the great voyager) in Turkestan. Seeing that 

 "' A. middendorffi " of Severtzov is a plain synonym of A. arvensis, Mr. 

 Alpheraky had only one course left : to give a new name (sibiricus) to 

 the East-Siberian bird, A. grandis of Middendorff (nee Pall), A. midden- 

 dorffi of authors (nee Severtzov !). If the late Dr. Severtzov, in 

 giving a new name to his Turkestan specimens of A. arvensis, acted 

 under a false impression that they were identical with East-Siberian 



