INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 355 



11. Anser albifrons. 

 The White-fronted Goose, 



Anser albifrons. Jerdon, " Birds of India," III, page 780 ; Hume, 

 "Str. Feath.," VIII, page 114 ; Hume, Cat., No. 947 ; Hume and 

 Marshall, " Game Birds," III, p. 73, Plate 10 ; Salvadori, '' B. B. M. 

 Cat.," XXVII, p. 92. 



Anser erythropm. Hume, "Str. Feath.," I, p. 259. 



Description : Adult Male.— Forehead and feathers at the base of the 

 upper mandible white, head, neck, back, rump and wings brownish ash- 

 colour ; upper tail coverts white, breast and belly pale brownish-white, 

 with patches and broad bars of black ; sides and flanks ash-brown with 

 paler edgings, and with a white band on the upper margin ; vent and 

 under tail coverts white, upper wing coverts greyish-brown with paler 

 edgings, the greater ones edged with white, forming a conspicuous band, 

 wing primaries bluish-black : secondaries black, tail feathers dark grey, 

 tipped with white, bill orange-yellow, the nail white ; irides dark 

 brown ; legs, toes and membranes orange, claws whitish colour. Total 

 length 27 inches, wing 16, tail 6, culmen 1*9, tarsus 2*5 (Salvadori). 

 Jerdon gives the wing as 1 7 inches, on the other hand Hume gives it a 

 15" to 15-75". 



Of the soft parts he gives the colours as follows : — Legs and feet bright 

 orange \ nails pinky or greyish- white ; bill pale, livid fleshy ; nail 

 whitish or pale yellowish-white, irides pale brown. 



Female. — This only differs from the male in being rather smaller, but 

 I can find no measurements of this goose sexed as females. 



Young. — "Bird of the year is more uniform in colour and rather darker, 

 the feathers at the base of the upper mandible are rather deeper brown 

 than the rest of the head ; the nail and point of the beak light-brown, 

 the pale brown feathers of the breast are uniform in colour, without any 

 dark patches or bars " (Salvadori). 



As the bird grows older the white band on the forehead appears and 



grows wider and wider, and from what can be gathered from present 



records, seems to get wider eventually in the adult male than in the 



female, though Salvadori notes no differences in this respect. As 



regards the coloration of the underparts it varies very greatly, this not 



according to age apparently. Some birds are so much marked with 

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