White-fronted Goose 49 



Now, in order to still more clearly explain what I mean, I must refer to a very 

 characteristic phrase used by Naumann, which I cite also in the description of the lesser 

 white-fronted goose, viz. : " The bill after death and the dry bill change into a light horn- 

 yellow colour, by which it is possible to judge approximately of its colouring during 

 life Г From this, one may confidently say that Naumann, who had seen living and 

 freshly killed greater and lesser white- fronted geese, considered that we might approxi- 

 mately judge the colour of the bills of living birds from dry horn-yellow bills. 



Since in the description of the lesser white-fronted goose I deny the existence 

 in that species of an entirely yellow or orange bill, so here also I do the same in regard 

 to the white-fronted goose, on the basis of an examination of Naumann's description, 

 and further draw the conclusion that its true normal colouring is pale fleshy rosy 

 reddish, or, finally, the beautiful rosy colour which Naumann saw in living specimens near 

 Potsdam. 



Knowing how many ornithologists have blindly kept in their descriptions to those 

 of Naumann without entering deeper into his statement, and also knowing how later 

 ornithologists have borrowed, at second hand, such descriptions, without taking the trouble 

 to verify the words of the original author, it seems to me perfectly clear that it was from 

 Naumann, and no one else, that arose the description of the yellow or orange bill of the 

 white-fronted goose, although, as a matter of fact, as I have here tried to prove, this is 

 nowise apparent from Naumann's own description. 2 



From a very considerable number of skins examined by myself belonging to this 

 species and to the lesser white-fronted goose, I have been able to arrive at the conviction 

 that the dry bills are almost always of a waxy yellow colour, and that it is hence evidently 

 impossible to judge of the colour of the bill in the living bird. 



Let us now see how Messrs. Degland and Gerbe describe the bill of this goose : " Bill 

 orange-yellow around nares, in middle of upper mandible and along edges of lower ; remain- 

 ing part of bill colour of wine-lees {lie de vin) with whitish nail У That this description 

 is perfectly accurate, at any rate for the great majority of white-fronted geese, is confirmed 

 by the following fact. In September 1901 I had the pleasure of receiving from the author 

 of Dikie Gusi Ross. Imp., Mr. S. A. Buturlin, a packet with the head and foot of a white- 

 fronted male goose, killed in Livonia, September 18, with a letter as follows : "Feet orange- 

 yellow with pale claws ; bill pale milky violet-colour with more whitish nail ; basal portion 

 of rami of lower mandible, the extreme edges of the nares, and a narrow strip along the 

 median part of the culmen, orange." 



This head, preserved in formalin, clearly shows where and how the orange-colour is 

 disposed on the whitish (with rosy shade) ground-colour of the bill ; and all this completely 

 coincides not only with the description of Messrs. Degland and Gerbe given above, but with 

 the description of the bill of A user gambeli by various authors. The following, for 

 instance, is what American ornithologists say about the latter : " Bill milky white (becoming 

 flesh-colour some time after death), the interior part and tomia with a very faint rosy tinge, 

 the posterior part with a hardly perceptible wash of bluish ; a square figure on culmen, 

 edges of nostrils, a small spot beneath them, and the basal two-thirds of the lower half of 



1 Although the intensity of colouring varies considerably from the afflux or reflux of blood, the fundamental tint yet remains the 

 same z>. rosy or flesh, between which it is not easy to draw the line. 



2 Just the same thing happened, we saw, with the description of the Siberian grey-lag by Dr. Radde. Not understanding the 

 words of this author, many others transferred the bright rufous colour of the feathering surrounding the upper mandible simply to the latter, 

 thus producing the confusion of which Radde was quite innocent. 



H 



