606 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



point. The bill figured in Mr. Gates's paper (Fig. 8) as that of A. 

 oatesi is, however, plainly that of A. serrirostris. Among females A. 

 serrirostris, collected by me in Kolyma's valley, several have bills 

 point by point identical with the figure 8 of Mr. Oates's plate, and no 

 longer wings. As A. serrirostris was first described from China, and 

 in several of my Kolyma birds I found on dissection old iron shot of 

 Chinese shooters, it is only to be expected, that Fohkien birds belong to 

 this species, being small individuals of it. 



As to the first specimen, its bill is somewhat small for a fully adult 

 specimen of A. serrirostris. But, then, it is here the place to state, that 

 eastern specimens of true A. segetum also visit China, as pointed out by 

 Mr. Alpheraky. 



As to myself, I am by no means quite sure, that the so called A. 

 oatesi has a yellow bill and is consequently identical with the eastern race 

 of A. segetum (= serrirostris). After all it may turn out, that my 

 .i. carneirostris goes as far east as China to pass the winter, and having a 

 pinkish-banded bill, (though orange-yellow legs,) could be described as 

 similar to A. hrachyrhynchus^ but with a larger bill. In this case the 

 name oatesi must stand, having priority (" carneirostris" was published 

 13th April 1901). But fuller description of the existing two specimens 

 is needed. 



Mr. Oates devotes some space to a criticism of Mr. Alpheraky 's work 

 on Geese, stating that it is only a Monograph of Eussian Geese, that 

 information given is from Eussian sources, that full synonymy is not 

 given, etc. As a matter of fact, in Mr. Alpheraky's work all species 

 and subspecies of all true Geese (subfam. Anserince) of the Old World 

 are fully treated of ; full synonymy is given (though references — very 

 rich indeed — are mostly devoted to works having something new or 

 noteworthy in them: the author thought it was of no use to follow the 

 much abused system of endless copying from the Catalogue of British 

 Museum, etc., of long lists of papers, if even nothing more than a 

 '•■ nomen nudum" of a species can be found there). 



Mr. Alpheraky, knowing well most European languages, utilised for 

 his work all valuable information that is to be found in works of most 

 European, Indian, and American ornithologists. If he adds to it also 

 all information from "Eussian sources" how can this addition detract 

 from the value of his work ? Surely it is a somewhat peculiar point of 

 view, — the more so as out of twenty-two species of Geese treated in the 



