greyish white; under tail-coverts, and the under surface - of
the tail-feathers, white; legs, toes, and membranes, dull flesh
colour; the claws black.
The whole length of an adult male thirty-five'inches; the
wing-, from the carpal joint to the end of the second quill-
feather, which is the longest-,, seventeen inches and a half.;
the wings when . closed scarcely1 reaching ;<to Jhe end of the
tail. Both males and females have a. hard - callous .knob a t
the point of the wing, which varies in size in the different
species o fgeesé. The males in this genus are larger than the
females. An adult female measured thirty, .inches in the
whole length, and oixteeu-in'Ches ■ in the wing. „Mr. Bartlett,
who has paid great attention to the .plumage ofrthese birds,
says, the youUg of this species, are darker than the adült% but
the grey colour-of the shoulders and 'rump, the form .of, the
bjlfeand the colour“ of the legs and feet,*wiik always distinguish
them front the young of any of-therbther^Ccies:
I have ventured to inake an exception to: thefigure placed
over thé name of the Grey Lag Goose in Bewick’s admirable
work on our British Birds, believing it to have-been taken
from a specimen of the^Bean Goose, .as the black nail at the
end of the beak, and the uniform colour of the wing, seems to
indicate. His excellent figure., of the- tamé^Gooée^ at page
304,- exhibits, the characters of the. true Grey Lag Goose,
from which the stock is derived, in the conspicuous white nail
to the beak, and the light coloured cinereous blue- outer portion
of the wing.
NATATOR-ES. | | ANATIDÆ.
T H E BEAN GOOSE.
Amas segetum, Bean Goose,
yt yy a ”
y y y y > » > y
Anser férus, ,. ,, >, * -
,, il Bean ,,
- ,, segetum, ,, n -
Anas ,, ' jOie ivIgaire^
Ahsèr ,, », »
PekN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 233.,.
MoftîC Ornîth. Diet.
BeWice* Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 303, %. p. 299'.
Flem. Brit. An. p. J2p."'»..
Seeby, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 263«
J enyns, Brit: Vert. p. 222. *
(xquéd, Birds of. Europe, pt. xiv.
T emm. Man. d’Ornitb. vol. ii. p. 820. •
ii ii ii pt. iv, p. 517.
T he B ean Goose is principally a winter visiter to the
British Islands, and from the'numbers that are seen in that
season of the year, is the most common, and the most numer