ANSEIl BRACHYRHYNCHUS. 77 



India requires further evidence." In spite of Salvadori's doubt on the 

 subject, this beautiful goose has now ])een ascertained beyond (juestion to 

 visit India. As long ago as lb49 Blyth recorded it from the Punjab 

 and gave it in the ' Cat. of Birds Asiatic Museum.^ Thirty years then 

 elapsed before there is any notice of this goose in Indian publications, 

 and then Hume again noted its occurrence (in ' Stray Feathers/ viii.). 

 In 18G4 he had, however, shot two birds of this species in the Jumna, 

 and Colonel Irby also had recorded having seen a specimen killed near 

 Lucknow in Jtinuary 1858. Colonel Graham assured Mr. Hume that 

 the species is not uncommon in Assam on the Brahma})ootra. 



Again, Major-General McLeod says of this goose : " I shot one of 

 these out of a flock of about twenty on the Kunawan bheel, near 

 Gurdaspur, Punjab, in 18;")3.'' All these records marj, however, have 

 referred to other species of Bean-Geese, most probably to neglectus, a 

 goose far more likely to favour us with visits than is Jn'ac/iijrJii/nchvSy 

 whose range does not, normaU//, extend nearly as far as India. 



The goose in my collection, above referred to, was shot by one of my 

 collectors on a large bheel in the south of Cachar. He said that it was 

 one of a flock of about a dozen, and that they were extremely wary and 

 wild. He went after them several times without obtaining a shot, and at 

 last got it by a fluke. He was stalking some other ducks when these 

 geese, which had been put up by someone else, flew close over his head, 

 and a lucky shot aimed at the front bird knocked over one of the 

 last ones. 



This is the bird referred to by Gates in his article on the Bean-Geese 

 which appeared in the Bombay N. H. S.^s Journal, and which he also 

 mentions in his manual of ' Game-Birds.' Since these were written, I 

 have, in consequence, hunted up, and luckily found, my original notes on 

 the goose, which leave absolutely no doubt as to my identification having 

 been correct, the notes on the wing-coloration and the bill having been 

 very full. 



As regards its breeding-habits, there seems to be little on record beyond 

 Dresser's notes ; he says : — " Of its breeding-habits but little, compara- 

 tively speaking, is known, and it is only known to breed with certainty 

 in Iceland and Spitsbergen. Professor Malmgren, who obtained its eggs 

 in the latter island, says that it is exceedingly wary and shy. In the 

 eai'ly summer it is to be seen in small flocks on moss-covered low lands 

 near the sea, or on rocky precipices, where there is vegetation here and 



