132 ANSERIFORMES 



head, and is comparatively large ; B. hutchinsi is a smaller ami 

 more Arctic form, B. minima and B. occidentalis north-western 

 races of the same. B. rufieollis, the Eed-breasted Goose of West 

 Siberia, which migrates southwards, strays to Britain, and is por- 

 trayed iu the paintings of Egypt, is black, with white loral patch, 

 I'ump, sides and belly, the ear-coverts, fore-neck, and chest are 

 chestnut outlined by white, and the two wing-bands are grey. 



Philacte caridf/irn, the Emperor Goose of North-East Asia and 

 North -West America, is blue-grey with black and white bars, the 

 head and nape being white tinted with orange, the throat brownish, 

 the bill purplish-blue with white nail, and the feet orange. 



Ci/enopsis cycno'ides, the Chinese Goose of East Asia, is mainly 

 grey-brown above and whitish below, with rufous edges to the 

 feathers ; the head and neck a-re white with a, brown band down 

 the crown and nape ; the bill is black, or in the domesticated 

 form red with a frontal knob ; the feet are orange. 



Anser cinereus, the Grey-La.g, which nests in North Scotland 

 and as far south as Spain and Kashgaria, ranges from Iceland 

 to China, the Eastern race being called A. rubrirostris ; A. albi- 

 frons, the White-fronted Goose, is found in Britain and most 

 Palaearctic countries in winter, and chiefly eastward of Norway 

 in summer ; A. segetum, the Bean Goose, another of our hibernal 

 visitants, breeds from Scandinavia to Amurland, and migrates 

 southward to Madeira, North Africa, China, and Japan ; A. hrachy- 

 rhynclius, the Pink-footed Goose, extends over North Europe, 

 and is common with us in the cold season ; A. indicus inhabits 

 Central Asia and North India. A. middendorffi, {grandis) of East 

 Siberia is a large form of the Bean Goose : while the small A. 

 erythropus, once shot in Britain, has a similar range to the White- 

 fronted Goose, of which both it and the big A. gamheli of North 

 America may be considered sub-species. The general coloration 

 in this genus is grey-brown; in the Grey- Lag the bill and 

 feet are flesh-coloured with white nail, in the White-fronted Goose 

 orange, the latter having a white forehead and white breast 

 with black bars. In the Bean and Pink-footed Geese the nail is 

 black, but the bill and feet are orange -and -black and pink 

 respectively. A. indicus is lighter, with brown hind-neck, and 

 two black crescents on the back of the white head. All these 

 " Grey Geese " feed chiefly by day among green corn, stubble, peas, 

 beans or clover, retiring at night to sand-banks or mud-flats in 



