142 



Geese of Europe and Asia 



Bill, legs, feet, and unfeathered part of eyelids black. Iris dark chestnut or hazel. 



According to the statements of some authors, there are sometimes, but apparently by 

 no means always, a few white feathers on the forehead of adult males at the base of the bill, 

 but I have not seen these in any skin I have examined. As to the feathering of the chin, in 

 the majority of cases this is not wholly black, but has a sprinkling of white plumules, giving 

 the chin a mottled appearance. 



Adult Female 



In outward appearance resembles adult male, but generally inferior in size. Among 

 other features, the bill, so far as I could ascertain (from inadequate material), does not 

 exceed 26 mm. (=1.02 in.) in culmen-length. There is also, seemingly, no difference in the 

 brightness of the colouring. It may be surmised that sometimes immature males have been 

 mistaken for females. 



Dimensions of Adult Birds of Both Sexes 



Total length 



Wing . 



Tail . 



Culmen 



Bill from gape 



Depth of bill at base of both mandibles 



Tarsus ..... 



Number of teeth on each side of upper mandible, 16. 



540-560 mm. ( = 21.2-22 in.). 

 350-360 mm. (= 13.7-14.1 in.). 

 153-154 mm. (= 5.90-6 in.). 

 25-27 mm. (= 1-1.10 in.). 

 27-28 mm. (= 1.06-1.10 in.). 

 19 mm. ( = 0.74 in.). 

 51-52 mm. ( = 2-2.04 ш 0- 



Young Birds (in Second Year) 1 



Shiny black of plumage replaced by brown ; instead of a rufous patch in aural region, 

 a similar grey-brown one, with more or less admixture of rufous plumules, the whole patch 

 being of indefinite outline, mingling with the surrounding whitish (not white) streak. As 

 regards the rufous colouring of the anterior part of neck and upper breast, it can only be 

 said that it is lighter (rufous buff) than in adult birds. White transverse bar, bordering 

 inferiorly the rufous of upper breast, less definite, and no black margin between this and the 

 rufous, or only in the shape of a few separate black-brown plumules. 



Tail-feathers with very narrow white or whitish tips. Under side of wings and 

 axillaries grey-brown. 



Feathering on chin with a large admixture of white featherlets, giving it a finely 

 mottled appearance. 



Tips of greater wing-coverts light buff; consequently both transverse bars across the 

 wing are of this colour and not white. 



Comparing the present description with the figure of a goose of this species in 

 Professor Menzbier's Okhotnichyi i Promyslovyya Ptitsy Yevropeiskoi Rossii i Kavkaza by 

 Mr. Thorburn, it is clear that the latter is taken from a young (adult) bird. 



Of the young in down I have no information. 



Geographical Distribution 



The range of the red-breasted goose has been worked out in great detail by Professor 

 Menzbier in his Ptitsy Rossii, and our knowledge has hardly been increased since the 

 appearance of that excellent work. 



1 I do not know how many years this species takes to attain full dress ; it is difficult to determine this from the plumage of two* 

 and three-year-old birds, but nevertheless I think, for various reasons, that the description here given applies to two-year-olds. 



