176 F. ¥mr\'~-General Notes on Vanation in Birds. [No. 3, 



and still are orange. Since then the old ones have bred every year, 

 some of the young having orange legs and bills, and some pink like 

 their parents. This year the first orange-legged one, a female, had a 

 brood, some of which had orange and some pink bills and legs. I have 

 never seen any mixture of the colours, the legs and bill being either bright 

 orange or bright pink ; tbei^ seems to be no gradation between the two. 

 As to the bills, the dark portion (that is, the nail and the base) remains 

 the same whether the other part is orange or pink ; in fact, the Only 

 part of the bill that shows any change is the part which in the Pink- 

 footed Goose is usually pink." 



The Chinese Goose (Cygnopsis cygnoides) of Eastern Asia has long 

 been domesticated in China and hns been known as a tame bird in 

 Europe for more than a century. 



This Goose as usually seen in England shows two varieties. One in 

 w^hich the colour of the wild tj^pe is preserved throughout, and a pure 

 white type, with bill as well as feet orange. I do not remember seeing 

 intermediate pied forms, which no doubt occur. 



The bill is shorter than in the wild type, and at the base there is 

 a fleshy knob, level with the foi^head above, and noticeably better- 

 developed in the male. The form is of course heavier than would be 

 the case in a wild bird. 



The species can be modified to a greater extent, for the large Swa- 

 tow breed, while typical in colour, has a very large knob, a pendulous 

 feathered dewlap and abdominal fold. 



A smaller lighter breed is imported to India from China, inferior in 

 size to the type and much darker and greyer in colour, with the feet as 

 well as the bill black, only just tinged with orange. There is no 

 gular or abdominal flap, but the frontal knob is well developed, ai^d 

 the beak short. 



The geese kept in India were considered by Blyth to be hybrids 

 between the Chinese and the common goose, but so far as I have seen 

 they show, in colour at all events, no trace of the latter. Their colour is 

 not very often completely normal, as they frequently show some orange 

 at the base of the beak, a white band of feathers round the base of the 

 upper mandible, and a more or less perfect white belt across the breast. 

 White birds are as described above. Pied birds are common, and 

 usually have tlie dark colour on the back, flanks, and head. Tiiey are 

 just as often ga;nders as geese, so that white is not sexually limited in 

 this race. 



The nasal knob is never very large, and grades into complete 

 absence. Two young specimens imported direct from China, and 

 normally coloured, had each a small round tuft at the back of the head. 



