4 Geese of Europe and Asia 



of head-wounds, there not unfrequently occur subcutaneous extravasation and infiltration 

 of blood, turning the colouring from light to dark, from rosy to deep crimson, and so 

 on. This I observed more than once in lesser white-fronted geese and swans killed in my 

 presence. Of the latter it happened that i о to 15 birds were shot in a day, and I noticed that 

 on the following morning the lemon-yellow bills in some specimens (with injured heads) 

 assumed an orange or red tinge ; and some such number I had occasion to see and examine 

 not once only but several times, as my fellow- sportsmen and I were then eager in our 

 pursuit of these birds, of which we killed many. I greatly regret that I did not then make 

 coloured sketches of several bills of freshly killed swans ; but, unfortunately, I could not 

 then foresee that I should want this information in writing the present book. 



Whether food has any influence on the colouring of the soft-parts in geese, is 

 a question which requires careful investigation. Probably the answer should be in the 

 affirmative, and this is the reason, it seems to me, why some English sporting ornithologists 

 affirm that, in the case of pink-footed geese [Melanonyx brachyrhynchus) living and breeding 

 in captivity, there have been specimens alike with normally coloured rosy or flesh-tinted 

 soft-parts, and others with these tinged orange, as in the common bean-goose. Sir R. Payne 

 Gallwey even states that he has shot perfectly wild M. brachyrhynchus with orange bills and 

 feet, a point I shall discuss more at length in the article on that species. 



It thus seems difficult to avoid supposing that such variations in the colours of the 

 soft-parts are dependent on the influence of food. The deposit of subcutaneous fat also 

 must here play no small part, a circumstance I shall discuss in greater detail in the articles 

 on the grey-lag and the white-fronted goose. 



Indeed, since we know that certain foods affect the colouring of the plumage in other 

 birds (for instance the familiar fact of the influence of cayenne pepper on canaries), it is 

 quite reasonable to suppose that a certain food may, in no less measure, influence the colour- 

 ing of the soft-parts of geese. Moreover, it should not be lost sight of that many 

 Lamellirostres exhibit purely individual differences in the colouring of both the plumage 

 and the soft-parts, as I have more than once had occasion to state in my Ducks of Russia 

 {vide articles on Mallard, Teal, etc.). 



One other circumstance is very important in connection with the difficulty of arriving 

 at final conclusions in regard to the colouring of the soft-parts in the birds at present under 

 consideration, namely, that all authors by no means define the colours in the same manner. 



" De gustibus et coloribus non disputandum," as the saying has it ; and it constantly 

 happens that what is considered by one author as yellow, is taken by another for orange, 

 and so on. Therefore, in descriptions of one and the same species, we not seldom meet in 

 different authors very dissimilar determinations of the colours of the soft-parts. I insist 

 specially on this, as I have myself had no little trouble in unravelling the causes of the con- 

 tradictory descriptions of the soft-parts to be met with in even very careful authors ; and I 

 desire to take the opportunity of pointing out the necessity when determining geese, whether 

 freshly killed birds or their dry skins, of being extremely careful in this respect. With this 

 object I asked Mr. Frohawk, who has made the drawings in the present work with such 

 truth to Nature, to direct particular attention to the colouring of the soft-parts, and I can 

 guarantee that the bills in these drawings are presented by the artist in their normal 

 colouring with extraordinary exactitude. When I was unable to give precise indications, 

 Mr. Frohawk scrupulously followed the description of the most competent observers, who 

 had noted the colouring from perfectly fresh individuals. 



