I l l l â i l l M M l l i
Anser indiens, Latham.
Vernacular Names.—[Eirooa, Kureyee-Hans, Ral-hans(Hindee), Doab,AW*'
V UK.Pnr.T,^Paria, AT&ti Terai; Nang-pa (Ladakhi), Ladahk; Dod Sarle
hake,* (Cannrese) Neer-bathoo, Caimbatore; Kangnai, Mumpur;
Badi-hans ; Chtilagong ; 1
fHE Barred-headed or Indian Goose appears to occur
as a regular cold-weather visitant in most parts of
Continental India, and as an occasional straggler to
many parts of Peninsular India; but its exact
distribution is still very uncertain.
As far as I can ascertain, it occurs, in suitable
localities, throughout the Punjab, (to the
. North-West at Murdan, where I myself obtained
a specimen), Rajputana, the North-West Provinces and
Oudh, and ISengalf west of the Brahmaputra, Chota Nagpur,
Ganjam (at the Chilka Lake in which it is extremely abundant)
and the Central Provinces, where, close to Kamptee, Colonel
McMaster obtained it.
I have no record as yet of its occurrence in Tippcra or any
part of Assam, but it must surely occur there, as Godwin-
Austen obtained it at the Logtak Lake in Munipur, and
Mr. Damant says, it is common in the latter, and Mr. H. Fasson
tells me that it occurs in large flocks in salt marshes along the
Chittagong Coast.
* This name which merely means, Major Mclnroy tells me, "large Duck," is, he
says, indiscriminately applied to all the Geese and larger Ducks.
+ Of its distribution in Bengal, I am by no means certain. I have observed it
everywhere along the course of the Ganges and in several places in the neighbourhood
of Calcutta.
Mr. Rainey notes it from Jessore, where it is rare. Tiekell says :—" They supply
in Bengal the place of the Grey Lag, and are met with well within the influence of the
tides. I have seen numbers of them at the mouth of the Hooghly, below Diamond
Harbour."
Cripps records it from Dacca and Faridpur, and I have a specimen from
Purneah ; but Tiekell says, " all along Tirhoot, Chupra, and the Terai, they
appear to be unknown, and Hodgson does not mention this Goose amongst his Birds
of Nepal."
This may be partially correct, but as it certainly occurs in Goruckpur and the
Nepal Terai, and everywhere along the Ganges, it must occur in Chupra, and I
shall be much surprised if it does not also occur in Tirhoot.