BRITISH BEAN-GEESE. 43 



paludosus agree very closely with arvensis ; but as the laminse can- 

 not be counted in the figure, and Mr. Coburn omits giving the 

 number in his description, and without actual examination of the 

 specimen, I will not express an opinion of its identity more than to 

 say it resembles arvensis closely, as will be seen by comparing the 

 bills in the two plates. But there is one point of difference shown : 

 the white band of feathers at the base of the bill in arvensis is 

 absent in Mr. Coburn's bird, according to the figure, unless it is 

 the pale space between the dark band along the culmen and the 

 forehead ; but this is not clear enough in the figures to make out, 

 although Mr. Coburn says that it is " curiously exaggerated by 

 the camera in figure " (p. 445). 



Mr. Coburn makes special allusion to the length of neck in 

 his stuffed paludosus, and seems surprised that I made no men- 

 tion of the long neck and swan-like feet in arvensis. Surely 

 Mr. Coburn must be aware of the danger of attaching much 

 importance to the length of the neck of a stuffed bird. He says 

 (p. 444) : — " For their portraits to be taken the birds were placed 

 opposite each other on exactly the same level, so that a glance 

 will show the extraordinary disproportion in the length of neck 

 in each bird." There seems to me nothing remarkable in this 

 excepting what applies to the taxidermist's art.*. 



Mr. Coburn also calls attention to the proportionate size of the 

 nail in paludosus, saying it is " larger in proportion than that of 

 A. segetum. , ' > I think if he measures the nail in each figure he will 

 find he is wrong. The figure he gives of segetum is not that of a 

 typical bird as regards distribution of colour in the bill, although, 

 as I have pointed out in the ' Field,' the colour, as well as the 

 number of laminse, are liable to vary ; but the colour varies most. 

 On this character Mr. Coburn considers I arrived at too hasty a 

 conclusion, but perhaps he did not read the last paragraph in 

 my article, where he will find I said: — " There is, of course, a 

 certain amount of individual variation in each species, but the 

 characters pointed out hold good in each, especially the great 

 difference in the comparative size of the nail." 



Respecting the variation in the bills of both arvensis and 

 segetum, I will give an extract from a letter recently received 



* Mr. Coburn in the following paper (p. 47) details his method of 

 mounting these birds. — Ed. 



e 2 



