ON A LOST BRITISH WILD GOOSE. 447 



nental skins of A. arvensis, but he makes no mention of the long 

 neck and swan-like feet. I do not think that Dr. Brehm would 

 have bestowed such a name as arvensis — i. e. appertaining to a 

 meadow or arable land — on a bird possessing such distinctly 

 aquatic characters as a long neck and large feet imply. 

 Further, as Brehm's name was given to his bird in 1831, it must 

 have been well known to such an ornithologist as Strickland in 

 1858, who would not have given such a distinctly opposite name 

 as paludosus (i. e. marshy or boggy) without good reasons for so 

 doing. I am forced to the conclusion that arvensis does not 

 possess these characters, consequently cannot be confused with 

 A. paludosus. As none of the German works containing Brehm's 

 observations on this bird are available where I write, nor are Con- 

 tinental skins, I am not in a position to hazard an opinion as to 

 the specific validity of this bird. 



There is one point in Mr. Frohawk's paper upon which I may 

 touch briefly. It appears to me that he has too hastily come to 

 the conclusion that the black on the bill of what he terms the 

 true A. segetum must in all cases come well below the nostrils, 

 leaving only a narrow band of orange. On this point Strickland, 

 who must have seen great numbers of A. segetum, says: "But 

 they vary greatly in the quantity and form of the black ; indeed, 

 I have seldom found two alike." This is my experience, and 

 must also be that of others who have had much to do with Bean- 

 Geese. A glance at my figure will show the typical bill of 

 segetum, but with the yellow colour extending almost beyond the 

 nostrils ; in other cases I have seen the yellow reaching almost 

 to base of bill. The fact is that the black is not permanent 

 and both paludosus, arvensis, and segetum may have the black 

 extending to below the nostrils at some period, but it fades away 

 at others, leaving the bill in the latter bird sometimes entirely 

 yellow, as is the case with a specimen now in the British 

 Museum. In the case of the two former birds, the black 

 remains only on the shield-shaped space of the first and the 

 bar of the second. A change takes place in the colouring- 

 matter on the bill of Bewick's Swan and several Ducks ; why 

 not in the Geese also? 



This paper has already much exceeded the space I intended 

 it to cover, notwithstanding which I shall have to pass over 



