THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
constant character, and it seems possible, even probable, that it is founded 
on very old and unusually large examples of A. serrirostris. 
Middendorff’s bean-goose (Anser middendorffi) seems to be distin- 
guished from its allies by having the head and neck golden -buff or rufous 
instead of chocolate -brown, and inhabits North-eastern Siberia from the 
Taimyr Peninsula to Kamchatka and the Commander Islands. It has a 
longer (2*9 to 3*25 inches) and less thick bill than A. middendorffi^ but 
like that species has the basal three -fifths and nail black and the sub- 
terminal portion orange -yellow. 
PINK-FOOTED GOOSE 
ANSER BRACHYRHYNCHUS 
Anser brachyrhynchus, Dresser, Birds Europe, vi, p. 369, pi. 413 (1878); Hume & Marshall, 
Game Birds Ind., iii, p. 71, pi. 9 (1880); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. Birds, part xxv, pi. (1893); 
Salvador!, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxvii, p. 103 (1895); Saunders, III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 403 
(1899). 
Melanonyx brachyrhynchus, Alph6raky, Geese of Europe, p. 87, pis. viii and xxiv (1905). 
DULT male. — Very similar to the bean-goose, but smaller, 
and the general colour of the upperparts lighter and 
g of a greyer ash -brown. The bill much shorter, and 
the middle portion pink instead of orange. The legs 
g and toes pink. Total length about 29 inches; bill 1*9 
vL inch ; wing 17*0 inches ; tail 5*0 inches ; tarsus 3*2 inches. 
Adult female. — Similar to the male, but smaller. Wing about 16*0 inches. 
General distribution. — ^The pink-footed goose breeds in Spitzbergen and 
probably also in Franz Josef Land and Iceland. On passage it winters 
in North-western Europe, and is a casual visitor to Scandinavia, North 
Germany, Holland, Belgium and France, and seems occasionally to stray 
southwards along the Atlantic seaboard to Spain and Portugal. 
Distribution in the British Isles. — ^In the British Isles the pink-footed 
goose winters regularly in large numbers, being most numerous on the 
east coast and less common on the south and west. In the Shetland Islands 
it appears to be unknown ; in the Orkneys and in the North of Scotland 
it is rarely met with, and its occurrence inThe Outer Hebrides is doubtful, 
while to Ireland it appears to be an accidental straggler. 
314 
