﻿20 ANATID.E. 



measure for their roving about at that time, over a wider 

 surface of ground than at any other period. 



In confinement, the present species feeds on the same 

 food as our domesticated goose, and thrives upon it. 



The arrival of the Orange-legged Bean Goose is by far 

 later in central Europe than that of the pink-footed, and 

 its departure in the spring earlier, which induces us reason- 

 ably to think that it breeds farther north than that 

 species, but, as before mentioned, we cannot speak with 

 certainty, although divers statements are made of its breed- 

 ing in the lakes of Cumberland and Westmorland, Scot- 

 land, and the western isles of the Hebrides ; also on the 

 coast of Norway, in Iceland, and even in Sweden and Den- 

 mark. In confinement it has been known to intermix with 

 our tame goose, and to produce a mixed breed, resem- 

 bling the tame mother in most respects, and the father 

 in the dark-coloured nail on the tip of the upper mandible. 



The Orange-legged Bean Goose measures thirty-six 

 inches in length ; the beak two inches and a half from the 

 forehead to the tip ; the wing, from the carpus to the tip, 

 nineteen inches and a half; the tarsus three inches and a 

 half ; the tail consists of sixteen feathers ; the wings, when 

 closed, do not extend beyond the tip of the tail. 



The head, and upper part of the neck are greyish brown, the 

 lower part of the neck, and the under parts are pale ash colour; 

 the upper part of the back, scapulars, and all the wing-coverts 

 are brownish ash, bordered with white ; the rump is brownish 

 black ; vent and under tail-coverts, pure white ; the beak is 

 black at the nail and base, and orange in the middle ; eyes 

 deep brown ; eyelids dark grey ; the legs and feet are orange. 



The female is smaller, and the young have a paler ash- 

 coloured plumage, and two or three white spots near the beak. 



The egg figured 229 is that of the Orange-legged Bean Goose. 



