246 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
THE PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 
Anser hrachyrhynchus, Baillon. 
A winter-visitant to the Solway. 
The Pink-footed Goose, the fourth species of " grey goose " 
that visits our Solway coasts, is often confused with the 
preceding species, but it is beUeved that during the last ten 
or fifteen years it has occurred in increasing numbers. 
In 1886 the late H. A. Macpherson wrote that Mr. br. 
Hohnes had shot a good many examples on the Scottish side 
of the Solway* and in the Zoologist of 1894 (p^lU) the 
same writer states : " In former days the Bean-Goose was 
the most common grey goose on the Solway Firth. Ot late 
years it has in my experience been replaced to some extent 
by Anser hrachyrhynchus. I lately identified the remams of a 
Pink-footed Goose, which had been shot out of a flock 
between Annan and Gretna." During the winter of 1894- 
1895, large numbers were observed on the Solway , and in 
the winter of 189(>-1897 they were reported coming m 
even larger numbers.f On December 16th, 1900, Mr. B. 
Service identified a goose sent to him from Amian as a male 
of this species, though he remarks on its similarity to a 
^ Thf S-footed Goose nests in north Iceland and Spitz- 
bergen, and migrates south in autumn. As regards feeat 
Britain, it is the commonest of the grey geese on the 
much confusion between the four common 
species of " grey geese," I have thought it * u^M 
to sportsmen and others if I here give a short differential 
description of the advlt of each,J with the hope that 
future occurrences may be correctly recorded :— 
• Birds of Cumberland, 1886, pp. 87, 88. 
t ^«n. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1897, p. 192. 
} Man. Brit. Birds, 1899, pp. 398, 400, 402, 404. 
