174 F. Finn — General Notes on Variation in Birds. [No. 3, 



primaries are always white in pied birds. A variety with white body 

 and black crest occurs, and has been fixed as the " Peruvian " breed. 



A slate-grey variety occurs, but is rare. 



Pure black and pure white specimens are not uncommon. 



The bill and feet in the latter are pale sickly yellow, and the irides 

 lio'ht blue, instead of the usual orange-brown. 



The bill and feet remain normal in most birds, but the terminal 

 portion of the toes and webs are often pale yellow in pied birds, the 

 rest of the limb remaining normal. The bare face of the drake varies 

 much in extent and development, being either moderate and smooth, or 

 excessively carunculated. It is sometimes nearly all black instead of 

 red, even in white birds. The duck has the bare face and carunculations 

 like the drake, but on a smaller scale, and the development varies 

 similarly. 



The form is often heavy and clumsy, but the birds can generally 

 fly, and often display a strong perching instinct. 



The Grey-Lag Goose (Anser ferus) of the temperate parts of the 

 Old World is the oldest of all domesticated birds, a white tame variety 

 having been known in the days of Homer. It is unusually variable in 

 the wild state, according to Mr. Hume (Game Birds of India, Vol. III., 

 pp. 63, 64). I have not noticed the variations he mentions, the com- 

 paratively few birds I have seen having been very uniform, but I have 

 several times seen a slight difference of colour which he does not appear 

 to have found, viz., the nail of the bill being horn-coloured instead of 

 white. Mr. J. G. Millais (Wild-fowler in Scotland, p. 31) records a 

 white Grey-lag which for four winters frequented the Tay Valley with 

 others of its species — thison the authority of a Mr. C. M. Innes, who 

 ultimately wounded but lost it. 



This goose has varied very little in colour, presenting only the 

 following types : — 



(a) Resembling the wild form ; correct for Toulouse breed. 



(b) Silver-grey ; only known as a sport in Toulouse ganders. The 

 case, as reported by a well-known water- fowl breeder, Mr. J. K. Fowler, 

 in Mr. L. Wright's Illustrated Book of Poultry (Cassell & Co., 1890), 

 p. 559, is so important that it may be given in full : — " Some time ago 

 I bought for a change of blood a fine gander from a celebrated fancier, 

 which differed from my own strain in colour, being of a beautiful silver- 

 grey instead of dark like my own, though otherwise the markings were 

 exactly similar. I bred from him that year some splendid stock, which 

 all took after their maternal relatives in colour with one exception, 

 consisting of a gander, which came of exactly the same hue as his sire. 

 Since that time 5 in each succeeding year, I find one or two — seldom 



