Зо Geese of Europe and Asia 



ganders, which occasionally yield such exceptionally large dimensions. This last supposition 

 of mine is confirmed, among other things, by Aksakov's description of grey-lag geese, in 

 which he calls their bills and feet yellowish green, i.e. coloured as these parts are only in 

 young birds, and adult, but not old, females. Regarding the richer colour of the plumage 

 of Siberian birds spoken of by Pallas, I must acknowledge that I could not discern it from 

 an examination of the skins in the museum of the St. Petersburg Academy. And Tacza- 

 nowski, in his ornithological work on the birds of Siberia, 1 states just the contrary, namely, 

 that " these geese of Eastern Asia seem to us lighter-coloured than the geese of Europe," 

 with which in general I agree. As to black or black-brown patches on the abdomen, no 

 better case is afforded for splitting the grey-lag into two races or two species, seeing that 

 these patches are subject to considerable individual variation, and undoubtedly increase in 

 number and in size with the age of the bird, as is the case in the greater and lesser white- 

 fronted geese. 



In connection with the remarkable longevity of geese, of which I have already had 

 occasion to speak in the Introduction, it is clear that these patches must spread more and 

 more with age, and may at last occupy almost the whole belly. 



But the third and most important character, cited by authors for the distinction of 

 the Asiatic from the European form of the grey-lag goose, is the supposed bright red base 

 of the upper mandible ! 



This alleged characteristic is founded on an extremely strange error ; the authors who, 

 quoting Dr. G. T. Radde 2 — the sole source whence they derived this information — putting an 

 entirely wrong interpretation on what my late respected friend wrote. The same essential 

 mistake was made by Taczanowski, and, probably after him, by Count Salvadori and others. 



The passage in Dr. Radde's account may be literally translated as follows : " In this bird 

 I notice that around the base of the upper mandible there is a very conspicuous rusty brown 

 colour, which passes, as a narrow band, beset with numerous white feathers, embracing the 

 base of the bill, into a fiery foxy red. Further, the whole bill of the bird was dingy white. 

 Otherwise our bird completely agrees with European specimens." Thus this fiery rufous 

 colour of the feathering at the base of the bill has been transferred by certain authors to 

 the base itself of the bill — a mistake which has given rise to a whole series of erroneous 

 interpretations and deductions. 



In view of what is stated above, and as I do not find a single character by which it is 

 possible to distinguish the oriental from the western representatives of the grey-lag, I decide 

 to regard Anser rubrirostris— by some considered a separate form— as a mere synonym 

 of A user anser, as has already been done by Mr. Oates. 3 



Geographical Distribution 



Seeing that I place the western and eastern forms of this species together, the 

 determination of the extent of its distribution becomes a considerably less complex matter 

 than it would be if there really existed two different forms of grey-lag goose. The 

 species breeds from Iceland in the west to the Ussuri district in the east, as well as in 



1 Faune ornithologiqiie de la Siberie orientale. 



■2 Sib. Reis. ii. p. 358 : "Auch an diesem Vogel sehe ich um die Oberschnabelbasis einen recht eclatanten rostbraunen Ton sich 

 verbreiten, der auf einem schmalem, vielfach von weissen Federchen durchsetztem Bande, welches die Schnabelbasis einfasst, zu brennendem 

 Fuchsroth gesteigert wird. Ausserdem war der ganze Schnabel dieses Vogels schmutzig weiss," 

 8 The Game Birds of India, Part II. p. 42 (1899). 



