ANSER IIUBRIROSTRIS. (]3 



(10) ANSER RUBRIROSTRIS. 

 THE INDIAN GREY LAG GOOSE. 



Anser cinereus, Jerdon, B. I. iii, p. 779 ; Hume, Str. Feath. i, p, 258 ^ 

 id. Nests Sf Eggs, p. 635 ; Butler, Str. Feath. iv, p. 26 ; Scully, ibid, 

 p. 199 ; Hume, Str. Feath. vii, p. 491 : viii, p. ll-l ; Hume, Cat. no. 945 ; 

 Hume Sj' 3Iar. Game-B. iii, p. 50; Hume, Nests Sf Eggs {Oates ed.), iii, 

 p. 279 ; Barnes, B. of Bom. p. 945. 



Anser rubrirostris, Salvadori, Cat. B. M. xxvii, p. 91. 



Anser ferns, Blanford, Fauna B. I. iv. p. 410. 



Anser anser, Oates, Game-B. ii, p. 42 ; Alpherahj, Geese, p. 24. 



Description. Adult male. — Lower back and ramp Erench-grey ; upper tail- 

 coverts white ; remainder oi: upper plumage, bead, and neck ash-brown, the 

 scapularies edged lighter ; a very narrow white rim of feathers at the base of the 

 bill ; lower neck in front, breast, and abdomen pale greyish-brown ; the abdomen 

 with more or less broad blackish spots, sometimes almost confluent, at others 

 almost absent; remainder of lower plumage white; flanks brown, tipped pale 

 Erench-grey, more grey at the bases of the feathers ; shoulder of wing and 

 smaller coverts next it, winglet, primaries at the base, and primary-coverts 

 Erench-grey ; remainder of wings brown, the secondary coverts edged whitish ; 

 under wing-coverts and axillaries Erench-grey ; two outer pairs of tail-feathers 

 white, the central ones brown, tipped -white, and the others brownish at the base 

 changing to white at the tip. 



The irides are always brown ; the nail of the bill sullied white, generally 

 yellowish or pinkish-white ; the bill, legs, and feet vary from creamy-white, 

 with only, in places, a faiut tinge of pink, through pale somewhat livid fleshy- 

 pink to a dingy-livid purplish-red, and very often the bill is of one shade, the 

 legs and feet of another. Never, in any of the innumerable specimens that I 

 have examined in India, have the bills had any orange or yellow tint about them 

 {Hume). "Length about 33 inches, wing 18, tail 6-5, culmen 2-7, tarsus 3"2 " 

 (SaJvadori). 



Female. — Only differs in being smaller Scully, ' Stray Eeathers ' (loc. cit.), 

 gives the measurements of the female as follows : — " Length 31 inches, tail 6, 

 tarsus 3, bill from gape 9-7." 



The young are far less marked underneath, and the majority of birds shot in 

 India will be found nearly white underneath. In the same place as that in 

 which he gives the above dimensions for a female, Scully gives others of a young 

 bird: — "Length 30'5 inches, expanse 60*25, wing 16-5, tail 6-3, tarsus 3, bill 

 from gape 2-65. Weight 5 lbs, 10 ozs." 



