the various species kept with her: in St. James’s Park, yet-she
laid eight eggs, and began to sit, but from which of course
there were no, proceeds. The eggs were rather less than
those of the .Bean Goose, of a pure white colour, and measuring
three inches and one eighth in length, by two inches and
a quarter in breadth.
This season the Zoological Society have allowed their male
t© be transferred to St. James’s .Park ; but though the pair
wére soon good friends, there is as .yet no produce.
: . Thb voice of the Pink-looted Goose. differs - from that o f
the Bean Goose in being sharper in tone,- and the .-. note i is
also repeated more rapidly* These geese were not uncommon-
in the London' market during .the „winters ‘of 188 8 ^,3 ^
and 40. t .
In January, of the .present year, .Î841, I was favoured with
a letter, from the Hon. and Rev. Thomas Koppel, o f War-
ham Rectory, near Holkam, informing-une that a Pink-fuoted
Goose had .been killed by his nephew, Lord Coke,ó t Holkam.
This bird was shot out-of a flock of about twenty!but nothing
particular was observed in their flight or habitsi. .
There is little or no doubt.that,this species will be found’
breeding in some of the localities frequented »by the: Bean
Goose.; At a meeting of .the Wernerian Natural History
Society,' held in Edinburgh on the 28th Noveriiber 1840,-
Hr, Neill, the secretary, read a communication from Mr.
Macgillivray, stating that the Pink-footed,. or Short-billed:
Goösef Ansér. brachyrhynchus, occurs. Occasionally on the
stalls of the poultry market, there.-—Edin. New. Phil. Journ.
No. 59, p: 213.
The bill is but Oné inch and fiVe-eighths in length, considerably’
shorter than the head, narrow, and much .contracted
towards the tip ^§thd;.nail, and the space- from the nostrils to,
thé base black; "the intermediate space pink ; the irides dark
brown ; .head, and neck -dark ash-brówn, fhé colour becoming!
lighter towards the lower part of the neck; back, wing-
cOverts and tertials, brownish-grey, edged and tipped with
dull white; primary quill-feathers lead-grey, with white
shafts; the secondaries still darker, almost bluish-black;
rump greyish ash colour; upper tall-coverts white; tail-
feathers grey, edged and tipped with white; neck in front,
breast, anép-belly, pale ash-brown, ' with lighter coloured
edges; sides, flanks, and thighs, grey, broadly tipped with
pale brown; -Vént;’ under tail-coverts, and under surface of
the tail-feathers white; legs,' toes, and membranes pink,
.tinged with vermilion, in colour like those of the Egyptian
Goose; the claws black; the hind toe short; the membranes
of the feet thick and fleshy. >
The whole length of an adult male twenty-eight inches.
From the carpal joint to the end of, the second quill-feather,
which Is rather-the longest in the wing, seventeen inches and
and a half; the carpal joint of the wing furnished with the
usual hard knob; * the wings' when closed reach an inch or
more^beyond the* .mid of the tail.
In the recently published Septèmber number of the Annals
and Magazine of Natural History, it is stated in a paper on the
Zoology.,of the ©uier Hebrides; b y Mr. J . Macgillivray, “ that
the Pink-footed or Short-billed-Goose breeds in great hum-
bers'-ih. the small islands of thé' Sound of Harris, as well as
those of ’the’, interior, of North Uist.- This bird was seen in
flocks so late, as the beginning of May, was observed in pairs
among the islands in the Sound about the middle, of the
month, and had the young fully fledged and strong upon the
wing about, the '.’end of July had again collected into
flocks by the beginning of August, for late in the night of
the 8th of that month, as I was, riding in great haste to overtake
the ferry-boat for Berneray, while crossing, the sandy
margin of a shallow pool, I Came suddenly upon a flock of
geese amounting to several hundreds.”
1 1