Grey-Lag Goose 27 



and greater wing-coverts, secondaries, and tertiaries brown ; latter, like primaries with white 

 shafts, becoming brown only at apex. Middle and greater wing-coverts with whitish edges 

 on outer webs. Under wing-coverts and axillaries light ashen grey. 



As the colouring of the bill itself is described in more detail below, it will suffice 

 here to note that the number of teeth on each side of the upper mandible in nearly all the 

 specimens I have seen varied between 21 and 23, although, to my surprise, in a male brought 

 by Col. Przewalski from Koko-Nor, I found 28. 1 A character very sharply distinguishing 

 this goose from the species of the genus Melanonyx is the colour of the teeth, which in all 

 grey-lag geese are yellowish white, while in the latter they are dark, sometimes almost black, 

 and only in a few specimens yellow at the spot where the yellow band reaches them at the 

 apex of the bill. The bill itself is of more or less vivid pink flesh-colour, but as a rare 

 exception yellowish orange ; — a point to which we shall return later. Nail of upper man- 

 dible in majority of cases white or horny white, or greyish white, with slight bluish tinge. 



Iris brown ; legs and feet, normally, flesh-colour ; claws black. 



Adult Female 



This is distinguished from the gander in nothing except the somewhat inferior size 

 and, on the whole, less weight ; but it must be remembered that large old females may 

 considerably exceed in both respects small although fully adult ganders. 



Before giving the dimensions of adult birds, I may discuss in somewhat greater 

 detail the colouring of the bill. 



In British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, Mr. J. Cordeaux states that a friend of his 

 killed a grey-lag in Lincolnshire, whose bill, with the exception of a narrow strip in front of 

 the white nail, was orange. Since then I have received information from Mr. Frohawk 

 that, in the opinion of certain competent ornithologists, in the Scotch representatives of this 

 goose the bill is regularly yellow-orange in colour. In regard to this, I wrote to Mr. Frohawk 

 approximately as follows : " At the present time, as is well known, in Great Britain this species 

 is resident only in Scotland and the Hebrides. This being so, it seems to me evident that 

 among such resident birds there occur fat, well-fed specimens. That in the yellow-orange 

 colouring of the bill the subcutaneous layer of fat plays the chief part I have no doubt, as I 

 maintain also in the case of the white-fronted goose. There are also many striking examples 

 among other species of far better fed and heavier resident birds being compared with migra- 

 tory birds of the same species or those that only come for the breeding season. We know, for 

 example, that the mallard, living permanently in any locality, far exceed in weight those merely 

 passing or coming to breed ; and at the same time we know that only among resident mallard 

 (sometimes reaching 5 lbs. in weight) occur specimens with bright orange bills, which are 

 never found in migrating birds. We also know that resident grey partridges considerably 

 exceed those migrating (in autumn) in size and weight, and have the legs yellowish, while 

 in migrating birds these are always of a more bluish hue. Here also I attribute the difference 

 in the colouring of the legs to the presence or absence of a subcutaneous fat layer. However 

 this may be, yet, speaking of migrating grey-lag geese, no responsible author mentions their 

 having orange bills. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey writes, for instance, that in England ■ the bill (of 

 the grey-lag goose) is of a uniform flesh-colour, except the white nail. Legs and feet are 

 flesh-colour.'" 



1 I cannot as yet say anything of this, in my opinion, strange case, but it would be very desirable that sportsmen, having occasion 

 to shoot grey-lag, should direct attention to the number of teeth of the birds they kill, whereby, perhaps, might be explained how far such a 

 variation is normal, or, on the contrary, exceptional. 



