60 INDIAN DUCKS. 



Sul)i:'aniily ANSERINE. 



This subfamily contains, according to Salvadori, six genera, but other 

 systematists have further consideraldy divided this again. 



Thus the Bar-headed Goose has been ])hiced in a genus, Eulaheia 

 (Reichenl)ach), by itself, and the Bean-Geese have been separated from 

 other geese and called generically Melanonijx (Buturlin). The only other 

 genus which interests Indian sportsmen and ornithologists is Branta or 

 Rujibrenta, of which one species, ruficollis, undoul)tedly visits our limits. 



The only genera we need recognise for the purjiose of this work are 

 Anser and Rufibreiifa, and I propose to deal with Alpheraky^s Anser, 

 Melanonyx, and Eulaheia, all under the former title. The generic 

 differences, if they do amount to such, are very slight, and there appears 

 to be no need to confuse readers more than can l)e helped. 



The distinctive features of the subfamily are : hind toe not lol)ed and 

 moderate in length, as is the neck, the feet are i)alinate(l, and there is no 

 cere. 



As regards India, the following key to the genera will sutiice : — 



Xeck and breast with uo briglit rufous coloration Anser. 



]Veck and breast extensively coloured with bright rufous .... liufihrenta. 



Since the article dealing with the true Geese ap})eared in the Bombay 

 N. H. S. Journal, certain specimens of Geese have been obtained, of which 

 two species, Anset' bracliijrhijnclius and Anther m'lddendorffi, have been satis- 

 factorily identified, and others of which the identity has not l)een aJisolutel// 

 made out, but which I have dealt with under the headings to which I 

 heliece they belong; also Rnphrenta riffii'olli.^. although not actually 

 obtained, has been sufficiently well identified to allow us to include it in 

 the Indian avifauna. 



The Bean-Geese have been dealt with at great length by Alpheraky in 

 his magnificent monograph of ' The Geese of Russia and Asia," and, 

 ))ecause of the mass of material he has had at his disposal, and the length 

 of time and study he has devoted to the subject, the results he arrives at 

 will probably be eventually found to more closely a])])roach correctness 

 than the attempts of other ornithologists, who have not bad the same 



