ANSER BRACHYRHYNCHUS, Bam. 
Pink-footed Goose. 
Anser hrachyrhynchus, Baill. Mem. cle la Soc. d’Emul. d’Abbev., 1833, p. 
phcenicopus, Bartl. Proc. of Zool. Soc., 1839, p. 3. 
From time immemorial wild geese of several species have migrated to the British Islands as regularly 
as the Cuckoo and the Swallow, but with this difference of object : the Cuckoo and Swallow have 
come here to breed and perpetuate their kind ; but the geese have sought our shores and river-flats as 
an asylum for the winter, just as the Fieldfare and Redwing do in localities suited to them. From the 
time of Willughhy and Ray to the early part of the present century, but little has been recorded about 
these important birds ; and their distinctions were involved in obscurity ; now, however, they are well known ; 
and I believe I shall he perfectly correct in stating that the British Islands are either regularly or 
occasionally visited by seven species, viz. the Grey Lag {Anser ferns'), the Bean-Goose {A. segetum), the 
Pink-footed {A. hrachyrhynchus), the White-fronted {A. albifrons), the Bernicle {Bernicla leucopsis), the 
Brent {B. brenta), and the Red-breasted {B. rnficollis). The first of these is the only one that remains and 
breeds with us, and is doubtless the origin of our common domestic goose ; the five succeeding are winter 
visitors only, and the last an accidental one. 
The Pink-footed Goose was made known as a British bird by Mr. Bartlett at the first meeting of the 
Zoological Society in 1839, when he characterized it under the name Anser phcenicopus from the colouring 
of its legs and feet, without being aware that M. Balllon, of Abbeville, had previously (in 1833) pointed out 
its specific distinctions, and assigned it the name of A. brachyrhynchus from the shortness of its beak, a term 
which, from its priority, is now generally adopted. 
In all probability the Pink-footed has always been the most common of our migratory geese, hut, until 
the dates above mentioned, was confounded with its near ally -the Bean-Goose, the two species being very 
similar in size and general appearance ; they are readily distinguishable, however, by the difference in the 
colouring of their legs and feet — those of the Bean-Goose being yellow, and those of the other pink. 
The A. hrachyrhynchus arrives on our shores early in October or the beginning of November, and at once 
resorts to all suitable localities, and remains there, if unmolested, until the spring, when, like all the other 
migrating geese, it quits the country, many of them proceeding to regions within the Arctic circle so far 
north that man has not yet been able to follow them, nor to ascertain what is the nature of the great 
nurseries of this family of birds. \ 
“ Since the specific distinctions of this short-billed Goose,” says Mr. Stevenson in his ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ “ were 
first pointed out by M. Baillon in 1833, and subsequently by Mr. Bai'tlett in 1839, it has proved to be both a 
constant and abundant winter-visitant on our Norfolk coast, although to a great extent confined to the western 
side of the county, and especially to certain localities in the neighbourhood of Holkham. 
“ The earliest record of its identification in this county is apparently the notice by Yarrell of a specimen killed 
at Holkham, in January 1841, by the present Earl of Leicester, out of a fiock of about twenty, since which time 
this goose has proved to be by far the most common species that frequents the Holkham marshes. Of its habits 
in that neighbourhood the following notes have been kindly supplied me by Lord Leicester. 
“ ‘ As long as I can recollect, wild geese frequented the Holkham and Burnham Marshes. Their time of 
appearing in this district is generally the last week of October, and their departure the end of March, varying a 
little according to the season. Till November they rarely alight in the marshes or elsewhere in the neighbourhood, 
but are seen passing to and from the sea. Where they feed in October I know not, as I have reason to believe 
that they do not obtain much food off the muds, like the brents, but live mainly on grass and new- sown wheat. 
From early in November till their time of departure for the north, the Holkham marshes have almost daily some 
hundreds of geese feeding on them. Tliere are periods of a week or a fortnight when the greater portion of them 
go elsewhere ; but rarely all go. When on the marshes they are mostly in one or two flocks, but in stormy 
weather, or even on certain still days, for some unaccountable reason they break up into small lots. My keepers 
informed me that one day, about the middle of November 1870, which was perfectly calm, they were flying about 
in small lots very low, and that a great many might have been killed.’ 
“Referring to the goose shot by himself in 1841, and identified by Yarrell as the pink-footed, his lordship adds, 
‘ Of the many geese killed here before then, I have reason to believe from their habits they were nearly all the 
same as those now here — the pink-footed ; and of the many hundreds killed since, with the exception, I believe, 
of only one bean- goose and a few white-fronted, they were all pink-footed. The greatest number killed in one 
year was in the severe winter of 1860-61, when one hundred and thirty-eight were killed, all pink-footed.’ 
“ Mr. Dowell, who is also well acquainted with the habits of this species and has shot several at different times, 
informs me that they feed in flocks of from one or two to six or seven hundred on the uplands by day, and he 
