72 INDIAN DUCKS. 



thoro wero three birds, and on the second only two, and they were quite 

 by themselves, not associating witli otjier geese as one would have expected 

 to see. 



Col. Graham says that this goose is found in Assam. Gates had the photo 

 of one sent him which had been sjiot on tlif < 'liindwin IJiver, by ( 'ajitain 

 Williams, on the 27th November, IbiitJ, and was also informed by 

 Major Rippon that it had been shot on the lake at Fort Stedman in the 

 Southern Shan States. 



It is not a rare bird in Great Britain, l)Ut has only twice been recorded 

 from Heligoland in the last century. 



Mr. Pearson ('Ibis,' 1896, p. 221; shot an Anser alhifrons on July 24th 

 in XoAaya Zemblya, and reports that the Ijirds were moulting, so, 

 presumably, they were also breeding there ; and according to Alpheraky 

 "they Lad bred here in large numbers" and "in limited numbers in 

 Finmark." The former author an<l his Ijrother obtained this goose in the 

 Philippine Islands. 



Mr. L. Po]jham found it breeding on the Yenisei River, but says that it 

 was not half so common as the Bean-Goose, He obtained three eggs and 

 also a gosling in down, but gives no details of how he obtained them. 



According to Midden dorff, who took the nest and eggs of this species in 

 the Taimyr Peninsula on the 10th July, the former was placed in a cone- 

 shaped tussock of grass, ]dentifully furnished with down from the 

 parent's breast. Again, on August 2nd he obtained eggs, so that it would 

 appear that they are late breeders. 



Prior to the recent records by Gates, nothing was known of this goose 

 being obtained anywhere to the east of the Indian Empire, though there 

 seems to be no reason why it should not fairly often enter both Assam and 

 Northern Burmah. Probably, however, it remains for the AVestern 

 sportsmen to say whether it is comparatively common or not, and it is to 

 be hoped that sportsmen will go in more regularly for making notes of the 

 varieties they shoot and recording them for the benefit of others. 



Alpheraky, who does not separate A.f/amhell and A. alhifrons, describes 

 the eggs of the former as being between 3'-48 x 2'2'2 and 2'99 x l'9-4 inches. 

 A clutch is usually stated as 5, C, or 7, but there is no doubt that the number 

 is sometimes greater. 



The only eggs I have in my collection were laid in captivity, and do 

 not differ from the eggs of the Grey Lag, except in being smaller, and, in 

 each case, a decidedly longer, narrower oval. 



