42 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



own ; in fact, this naturalist called my attention to the confusion 

 existing respecting A. arvensis and A. segetum having been so 

 long confounded as one species. To quote from his letters on 

 the subject, he says : — " I should much like to know which is the 

 Bean-Goose of Great Britain ; I am sure that under the name of 

 A.fabalis two very distinct species are confused by Count Sal- 

 vadori (' Cat. of Birds,' xxvii.), one being segetum, the other 

 arvensis." In a subsequent letter he states : — " It is true that I 

 was quite sure that both arvensis and segetum (two very good 

 species) must occur in England, but how could I prove it ? It 

 is only through your kindness that I learn that is a fact." And 

 again Mr. Alpheraky says : — " I am sure that although you have 

 in Great Britain A. segetum as a winter bird, it must be with you 

 a scarce bird, as it is, according to my investigations, everywhere 

 in Europe. I suppose that in general, to every hundred arvensis 

 there exist in the world but one or two segetum. Such is my 

 impression, based on a goodly number of skins from different 

 parts of Europe and Asia. I suppose that you will find but very 

 few British -killed specimens of segetum in your collections, and 

 that arvensis is the Bean-Goose par excellence of your country 

 in winter." 



Respecting the scarcity of segetum, Mr. Coburn (p. 446) 

 remarks : — " It has been suggested to me that A. paludosus may 

 be identical with Brehm's A. arvensis. A paper on the latter bird 

 has quite recently (October 4th, 1902) been communicated to the 

 ' Field ' by Mr. Frohawk, who endeavours to prove that this is 

 the common Bean-Goose of our land. I cannot at present agree 

 with him on several points he raises." 



From my investigations I have every reason to believe that 

 segetum is much the rarer of the two species, which is the 

 opinion of others, among whom I may mention such experienced 

 wildfowlers as Mr. Caton-Haigh ; and Mr. J.M. Pike tells us, in 

 the ' Field,' Dec. 20th, 1902, that during thirty years' punt- 

 shooting he has only occasionally come across A. segetum out of 

 many hundreds of freshly killed Grey Geese. 



Mr. Coburn admits the similarities existing between his 

 paludosus and arvensis, and I must confess, from the photo 

 reproductions which accompany his article, that the pattern of 

 colouration and the proportionate size of the nail in the bill of 



