1 1 8 Geese of Europe and Asia 



locally, as, for example, in Hungary. For the reasons above stated I find it, however, quite 

 impossible, without first examining European collections, to ascertain the exact routes of its 

 passage through Europe. 



All that I can surmise from the available literature is that the bean-goose in Western 

 Europe is far less numerous than the yellow-billed species. In Great Britain " bean-geese" 

 remain to winter locally in considerable numbers, but till recently they were all, except the 

 pink-footed species, classed under the collective designation of " bean-geese/' 



Wishing to clear up the matter, I applied to Mr. Frohawk, who readily took up the 

 question ; and the result of his investigations was the note, with figures of the bills of the 

 bean and yellow-billed goose, in the Field of October 4, 1902. It is there stated he only 

 saw a single example of M. segetum, one of a pair killed in Norfolk in January 1884, now in 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney's collection. All the other " bean-geese " shot in England proved to 

 belong to M. arvensis. Accordingly it may be safely affirmed that in Great Britain the 

 bean-goose is out of all proportion less numerous than the yellow-billed kind, an inference 

 in complete accord with what I had written to Mr. Frohawk on the subject. 



It is, however, quite possible that, besides these two species, Sushkin's goose may 

 also winter in Great Britain, since there is the evidence of specimens which the late Mr. J. 

 Cordeaux could not refer to any one of the described species of this group. Although I have 

 not yet received full replies to my questions on this point, such straying of Sushkin's goose 

 (which, as already stated, breeds in Novaia Zemlia) to England would not be at all surprising. 



In Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Greece 

 M. segetum is certainly met with, but everywhere, as it seems to me, in scant numbers 

 as compared with M. arvensis. 



Here I may quote a circumstance testifying to how little this goose is known in 

 Europe. In answer to my request to send me a skin of a typical bean-goose, 1 I received 

 under that name from a well-known firm, trading in bird-skins, a young white-fronted goose 

 {Anser albifrons). 



In a word, considerable time must elapse before our knowledge of the distribution of 

 the bean-goose in Western Europe assumes a true shape, and I shall be only too happy if 

 my present work helps to throw light on the question. 



In Finland I have not met with this goose, either breeding or migrating; but it can 

 hardly be doubted that it occurs there locally on passage. In regard to Archangel, the 

 Pechora tundra, and Transuralia, we are also still in complete darkness in this respect. 



That the species is found sometimes as a migrant near St. Petersburg we know from 

 the works of Messrs. F. D. Pleske and E. A. Blichner, but I am convinced that it is there far 

 less abundant than M. arvensis. I may add that I venture to consider the occurrence 

 of M. segetum in the Taimyr peninsula (Boganida) recorded by Middendorff to be based 

 partly on the yellow-billed and partly on M. segetum serrirostris, but in no sense on the 

 typical bean-goose. 



With this I conclude all the scanty information I have been able to gather with 

 regard to the range of this species. 



Nesting and Habits 



According to Mr. G. F. Gobel, on Novaia Zemlia the bean-goose builds its nest on dry 

 tussocks near lakes, but we are still without any further authentic information. The same 



1 When I was only just beginning this work. 



