78 THE DWARF GOOSE. 
to which the white on the forehead extends backwards on to 
the crown in the Dwarf. 
VERY LITTLE seems known about the habits of this species. 
Here also the extraordinary discrepancies in the alleged 
colouring of the soft parts, as stated by various authorities, might 
lead some to suspect that two species have been confounded. 
However, assuming that Naumann’s Dwarf Goose with yel- 
low bill and legs is the bird we get here in India, (even though 
it may not prove to be the veritable evythropus,) we learn that 
this species (which is about the size of a Brahminy Duck, 
though with a much smaller bill and head) is much bolder and 
less shy than the other Geese. With its proportionally longer 
and more pointed wings it flies much faster, twisting and turning 
far more rapidly. It is less noisy than the other species, with 
one or other of which it often keeps company, not indeed join- 
ing parties, but keeping near them, and maintaining the same 
interval of separation whether flying or on the ground. Per- 
haps, too, this species spends more of its time in the water, and 
less on land, than its larger congeners already noticed. The 
food seems to be similar to that of the other Geese—grain and 
green shoots. 
IT CERTAINLY breeds in Lapland, where Wolley, Dann and 
others have taken the eggs, from nests of the usual Goose-nest 
type. They lay five to seven or eight eggs, of the usual broad 
regular oval shape, glossless, of a dull creamy white colour, and 
averaging about 2’9 in length by 2:0 in breadth. 
THE FOLLOWING are the dimensions, taken from the skin of 
my Lucknow specimen :— 
Length, (about) 21°5 ; wing, 14°05; tail from vent, 4°7; tar- 
sus, 2:2; bill from ape) iar © 
To judge by their present appearance, the bill has been 
orange, tinged with carmine ; its nail whitish, and the legs and 
feet orange yellow. 3 
Of Mr. Chill’s birds, the dimensions (taken from the skins) 
are :— 
Sex. Length Wing. Tail. Tarsus. Bill from gape. Bill at front 
from margin 
of feathers. 
a 24°23 14°91 4°2 2°48 1°59 1°36 
3? 21°5 14°55 33 2°49 1°56 1°26 
21°75 14'0 3'°9 2°39 ? 1°16 
Of the first male, the bill appears to have been red, the legs 
and feet orange ; of the second, (which I suspect may have been 
missexed), bill, legs and feet pale yellow ; of the female, bill 
yellow, legs and feet red. 
But from dry specimens, no safe conclusions as to colours of 
soft parts can ever be drawn. According to Linné’s original 
