NOTES AND QUERIES. 269 



&c, and would like to make a few remarks on these articles. To begin 

 with, I will take the Pink-footed Bean-Goose. 



Pink-footed Bean-Goose (Anser bracliyrhynchus) . — As I have said 

 before, I do not believe there are two species found in this country. 

 Since my letter in the 'Field' on Dec. 6th, 1902, when I gave the 

 weights of some of these Geese, I have obtained two which were heavier 

 than any of those I then mentioned, one weighing 7f lb., and the other 

 7i lb. Mr. Frohawk, in his article in the ' Field ' on Dec. 20th, 1902, 

 written in reply to my letter of the 6th, seems to lay great stress on 

 the number of laminae in the bill ; but I think in a later article he has 

 come to the same conclusion as I did some time ago, that the number 

 of laminae is nothing to go by. In the former article he says that 

 A. bracliyrhynchus never has more than twenty-one laminae on each 

 side of the bill, and that if more are present the Goose is A. neglectus, 

 and not A. bracliyrhynchus . In support of this statement he quotes 

 the opinion of Mr. Serge Alpheraky, the Russian ornithologist. 



In my large Goose which I mentioned in the ' Field ' of Dec. 6th, 

 1902, there were twenty-three laminae on one side and twenty-one on 

 the other side of the bill. The colouring of the carpal and lesser wing- 

 coverts varies very much in the Pink-footed Goose, as also does the 

 colour of the whole bird. A specimen which I shot on Jan. 21st, this 

 year, is almost black on the wings, instead of bluish grey, but still it 

 has twenty-one laminae on either side of the bill, and weighed 6f lb. 

 The length of the bill in my large Goose was more apparent than real, 

 owing to its slimness, but really it was only \ in. longer than most 

 specimens, measuring lii in. instead of If in., which is nowhere near 

 2^ in., the length of bill in the new species, A. neglectus. I agree with 

 Mr. Boyes in saying that there is much variation in the colour of the 

 feathers, according to age. My specimen with the large triangular 

 head and thin beak was a very light-coloured bird, an adult male, 

 number of laminae twenty-three and twenty-one, weight 7 lb. Another 

 specimen, an adult male, was very dark in colour, and had twenty-one 

 laminae on each side ; weight, 6| lb. Another dark-coloured specimen 

 had the same number of laminae, and weighed 1\ lb. ; this was an 

 adult female. Two other light-coloured specimens, a male and female, 

 weighed respectively 7f and 6 lb. I did not count the laminae in the 

 former, but in the latter they numbered twenty-one on either side. A 

 young specimen, a male, was also light-coloured, had twenty-one 

 laminae on one side and twenty on the other, and weighed 5 lb. 2 oz. 



The bluish-grey birds are more numerous than the dark-coloured 

 ones, the proportion, as far as those which I myself have shot, being 



