'3G0 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



-feathers margined paler ; rump much darker brown and without the 

 grey tint ; upper tail coverts white ; edge of shoulder of the wing, 

 'primary coverts and base of primaries, greyish brown ; remainder of 

 •wing brown, the coverts and secondaries all edged with whitish ; under 

 wing coverts greyish-ash colour ; flanks brown, the feathers edged paler; 

 breast pale greyish-brown ; abdomen, vent and under tail coverts white, 

 often, more or less, sullied with brown ; bill with nail* edges and base 

 black, the middle. portion pink to carmine ; legs and feet pink. "The 

 legs and feet are fleshy to purplish-pink, again at times 1 with an orange 

 tinge; the claws blackish, paler at base ; irides hazel." (Hume). ". 



A fine male in my own collection measures: — ^'length 27",wing lG'S", 

 tail 4-8", tarsus 2*44"; bill at front T6", arid from gape 1'65". 



The female only differs from the male in being smaller. Salvador! 

 (loco citato) says regarding the distribution of this goose " Spitzbergen, 

 where it nests, and probably also Franz Joseph Land during the migra<- 

 iion, and in winter in N.-W. Europe ; occasionally it strays < to 

 Germany, Belgium, and France; its alleged occurrence in India 

 requires further evidence. 5 ' In spite of Salvadori's doubts on the subject 

 I think we may take it for granted that the pink-footed bird is not only 

 a regular, but by no means very rare, visitant to East-Northern Iridia. 

 -As long ago as 1849 Blyth recorded it from the Punjab and gave it in 

 the "Catalogue of the Birds of the Asiatic Museum." Thirty years then 

 elapsed before there is any notice of this goose in Indian publications, 

 and then Hume again noted its occurrence (in " Str. Feath., " VIII. In 

 1864 he had, however, shot two birds of this species in the Jumna, and Col. 

 Irby also had recorded having seen a specimen killed near Lucknow in 

 Jan. 1858. Col. Graham assured Mr. Hume tjiat the species is not 

 uncommon in Assam on the Brahmaputra. Again Major-General 

 McLeod says of this, goose :— " I shot one of these out of a flock of about 

 twenty on the Kunawan bheol, near Gurdaspur, Punjab, in 1853." 



The gOose in my. collection was shot by one "of my collectors "on a 

 large bheel in the . south of Cachar. - He said that it was one of a flock 

 ( of about a dozen, and that they were extremely wary and wild. He 

 went after them several times without obtaining a shot, and at last got it 

 by a fluke. He was stalking some other ducks when these geese, which 

 had. been put up by some one e'se, flew close over his head, and a lucky 

 shot aimed at the front bird knocked over one of the last ones. "., 



