Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/523

Rh nental skins of A. arvensis, but he makes no mention of the long neck and swan-like feet. I do not think that Dr. Brehm would have bestowed such a name as arvensis—i.e. appertaining to a meadow or arable land—on a bird possessing such distinctly aquatic characters as a long neck and large feet imply. Further, as Brehm's name was given to his bird in 1831, it must have been well known to such an ornithologist as Strickland in 1858, who would not have given such a distinctly opposite name as paludosus (i.e. marshy or boggy) without good reasons for so doing. I am forced to the conclusion that arvensis does not possess these characters, consequently cannot be confused with A. paludosus. As none of the German works containing Brehm's observations on this bird are available where I write, nor are Continental skins, I am not in a position to hazard an opinion as to the specific validity of this bird.

There is one point in Mr. Frohawk's paper upon which I may touch briefly. It appears to me that he has too hastily come to the conclusion that the black on the bill of what he terms the true A. segetum must in all cases come well below the nostrils, leaving only a narrow band of orange. On this point Strickland, who must have seen great numbers of A. segetum, says: "But they vary greatly in the quantity and form of the black; indeed, I have seldom found two alike." This is my experience, and must also be that of others who have had much to do with Bean-Geese. A glance at my figure will show the typical bill of segetum, but with the yellow colour extending almost beyond the nostrils; in other cases I have seen the yellow reaching almost to base of bill. The fact is that the black is not permanent and both paludosus, arvensis, and segetum may have the black extending to below the nostrils at some period, but it fades away at others, leaving the bill in the latter bird sometimes entirely yellow, as is the case with a specimen now in the British Museum. In the case of the two former birds, the black remains only on the shield-shaped space of the first and the bar of the second. A change takes place in the colouring-matter on the bill of Bewick's Swan and several Ducks; why not in the Geese also?

This paper has already much exceeded the space I intended it to cover, notwithstanding which I shall have to pass over