84 ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL. 
several specimens, the first birds having been acquired in 1852. 
They usually cost from £5 to £6 a pair. 
M. Huet, Assistant Naturalist to the Natural History 
Museum of France, succeeded, after six years, in hatching two 
of these birds in 1888, and they have also bred in the zoological 
collections of Antwerp and Berlin, while a large number of eggs 
were laid by the Geese at St. Stephen’s Park, Dublin, but I am 
not aware that any young were reared. 
Male. — Head white, barred with black on the nape of 
the neck; sides of neck white; upper body pale ash colour 
with a reddish tint, each feather lightly bordered with white ; 
the general appearance of the plumage ashy-grey ; wings and 
tail of a darker shade; eye light brown; bill yellowish ; legs 
and feet orange. 
Female. —Similar to the male ; less distinct in colouring. 
Young.—The young bird at three months old differs 
from the adult in head and neck markings. According to 
Hume and Marshall, the bill is yellow with dark brown 
tip; legs and feet brown orange ; forehead brownish-white : top 
of head and back of neck dusky-black ; no trace of bars on the 
neck. 
Egg.—White and nearly round. July—August. Incu- 
bation, four to five weeks. 
BEAN GOOSE. 
(Anser fabalis, Anser segetum). 
The Bean Goose is usually seen in flocks during the 
autumn months in the British Isles, and its general distribution 
resembles that of the Grey-lag Goose, being like that species an 
extremely shy bird. It is common in Hudson’s Bay, and com- 
mits great depredations in the fields of wheat and other crops. 
