so that towards the end of the incubation term there is much
more down there, than previously. The eggs vary in number
from six to twelve, and are not rough in texture of shell, but
dull and without gloss, dull yellowish white in colour when fresh,
with the faintest tinge of green. In early seasons the eggs are
deposited early in March ; but otherwise they are frequently not
laid until May ; and in Finland I generally obtained them from
the ist to the 15th of June. Eggs in my collection vary in size
from 3'4 by 2-25 to 3^62 by 2-38 inches. When the young are
hatched they remain about a day in the nest, and are then conducted
by the mother to the water ; and when the nest is near
the water, which is not always the case, they return to the nest
every evening, and are covered during the night by the old
bird.'"
The only Indian eggs of this species, that I have seen, were
laid in captivity, early in May 1869, by the female of a pair
of pinioned wild birds in the possession of Ruttun Singh, of
Juggernathpur, Zillah Etawah. The previous year the same
bird had laid and hatched a single egg, and had succeeded in
rearing the young one till it was destroyed by a snake when
about three months old.
The two eggs laid in 1869 are moderately long ovals, the
broadest portion in the centre and the two ends sloping away
thence pretty equally. The shell is glossless, and of a compact,
but not a very fine, texture. The eggs are spotless white, with
a faint creamy or ivory tinge, and when held up against the
light, seem pale pinkish yellow. They measured 34 and 3-55
by 2'25 and 2'45.
" When in Kashgar," Scully writes, " two eggs of Anser cinereus
(laid by a captive bird with cut wings) were obtained on the
1st and 12th June. They are spotless white, with an ivory
tinge, glossless or faintly glossy in parts, and of a compact
texture. In shape they are moderately long ovals, broadest
about the centre, and measure 3-37 by 2'33 and 3'2i by 2*21."
T i n s SPECIES varies very much in size and weight, chiefly, I
think, according to age, the birds not acquiring their full growth
until the third year. The males, too, average larger than the
females, but many of the latter are quite as big as many of
the former ; and all we can say is, that the very smallest are
always young females, and the very largest, old ganders.
The following is a resumé of the measurements of nearly
fifty specimens :—
Length, 30 to 35 ; expanse, 5 8 to 6 8 ; wing, 1575 to 19-0 ; tail
from vent, 575 to yo ; tarsus, 2'5 to 3'2 ; bill from gape, 2'5
to 3 ; weight, 5 lbs. 12 ozs. to 8 lbs. 14 ozs.
As for weight, I have weighed several hundred and never yet
met with one that weighed quite 9 lbs., whereas Naumann gives
the weight of the smallest of the European orange-billed form
(vide infra) as over 9 lbs. English, and says that they commonly
weigh nearly 11 lbs., at times exceed 12 considerably,
and arc said to have been obtained up to l6}4 lbs.
The irides are always brown ; the nail of the bill sullied
white, generally yellowish or pinkish white ; the bill, legs, and
feet vary from creamy white with only, in places, a faint tinge
of pink, though pale, somewhat livid fleshy pink, to a dingy
livid purplish red, and very often the bill is of one shade, the
legs and feet of another. Never in any of the innumerable specimens
that I have examined in India have the bills had any
orange or yellow tint about them.
Season has nothing to do with the changes of colour above
referred to, for I have got specimens of all types of colouring
on the same day; nor cotdd I make out that these variations
were dependent on age. They seem to me to be a matter
of individual complexion, and certainly often coincide with differences
in the general tone of plumage.
THE PLATE is an extremely good one, but it was drawn
from an European and not an Indian specimen, and it shows
the barrings on the lower neck and breast as far more pronounced
than they ever are in Indian birds, and it exhibits the
bills as a more or less orange yellow, which they never are
in our birds. But some European birds do apparently have
the lower surface very much banded and the bills orange yellow,
and these are the birds that Naumann figures as the present
species, or as the Common Grey (or Grey Lag) Goose. His
accuracy is unimpugnable, and he says distinctly—"bill orange,
without black, naked eyelids and feet pale flesh colour." The
birds are of much the same dimensions, but the yellow-billed
birds weigh up to considerably over 12 lbs. English.*
Macgillivray gives the bill as yellowish orange. Yarrell, however,
gives it a pink flesh colour, and this is the colour of the
bill of the Lincolnshire specimen, figured by Dresser, which, in
every respect, perfectly represents the birds so common in
Upper India. I may say pretty positively that with us the orangebilled
form does not occur. I have shot some thousands of
Geese in India, and I have never met with any Goose of this
type, with the bill coloured otherwise than as above described.
It may be that there are two distinct species ; if so the name
cinerctis applies to the orange-billed race, for Meyer says, " bill
pale orange red." On the other hand our pinky-billed species,
rubrirostris of Hodgson, is the Anser vulgaris of Pallas, who
says, " bill, feet, and eyelids reddish."
Whether the two forms are specifically distinct, I cannot say ;
but it must be clearly borne in mind that the form we get in
* 12 Leipsig Piund are equal to about 12-4 lbs. Avoirdupois.