Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/518

442 Upon further investigation, and a study of Count Salvadori's descriptions of the Wild Geese in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds, vol. xxvii., I was led to infer that the bird might be Anser serrirostris of Swinhoe, a name copied by Swinhoe from a manuscript left by the late John Gould, who intended to publish this name, but death intervened. I was strengthened in this belief from the fact that the serrations on the lower mandible of my bird were totally distinct in shape to those of A. segetum. However, I could not find any full description of this bird, and, subsequently receiving an invitation from Dr. Bowdler Sharpe to dine with the British Ornithologists' Club at their June meeting, I took my specimen, together with A. rubrirostris, to exhibit before the members.

Upon comparing my bird with the skins in the National Collection, I found that it was not A. serrirostris; and further, that there was no specimen in the Museum which would at all agree with my bird, especially as regards shape and colouration of bill. The result was that I could not formally bring the bird under the notice of the Club that evening, and did so incidentally only, pending a still fuller investigation at the Museum the next day, under the kindly assistance of Mr. Eugene W. Oates and Mr. Stewart Baker. The net result of this examination was simply to confirm my first enquiry: there was no bird like mine in the National Collection, and Mr. Oates intimated that I should be justified in giving the bird a name. This I was unwilling to do until further enquiries had been made, and I had prepared a paper for 'The Zoologist,' pointing out the characters of the bird. In the meantime I continued my investigations, and have now, I think, got to the real root of the subject, and can put a totally different complexion upon it.

There need be no doubt whatever that my specimen is the Long-billed Carr-lag Goose (Anser paludosus), first described by Strickland in 1858 before the meeting of the British Association at Leeds; and that Strickland was perfectly justified in describing the bird as a distinct species, there can be no shadow of doubt. It is much to be regretted that his observations did not receive more consideration at the time, as it is this neglect which has led to the bird being almost totally overlooked and forgotten for nearly fifty years. This might not have occurred but for a note