80 Mr. J . Berry on an unusual Goose of [Ibis,

1V.-The Occurrence of an unusual Goose of the Type Anser neglectus in Scotland.

(Plate 11.)

OF the four species of grey Geese which winter annually in East Fife, the Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) is by far the most numerous on the maritime area between the firths of the rivers Tay and Eden, and I have devoted a great deal of time t o the study and collection of varieties of this species in. that district. While all the grey Geese exhibit considerable individual variations in size, plumage, and the colouring of the soft parts, such variations are almost in- variably along certain definite lines characteristic of the species, and do not, therefore, seriously complicate the identifi- cation of abnormal specimens. This is particularly true of the Pi&-footed Goose, and although I have shot examples varying in. weight from 2$ t o sglb., and have known a variation in the lengths of the bills (culmens) of 12 mm., I have scarcely ever been in any doubt as to the identification.

In a paper OR ‘‘ Variations in Geese ” read before the Royal Physical Society in Edinburgh last year (1932) I mentioned having secured a very unusual ‘‘ Pink-footed Goose ” which exhibited several features strikingly different from those normal for that species, the chief points being yellow legs, a remarkably long neck, and a far darker and browner plumage, especially on the wings. The length of bill was 50 mm. While abnormally long for a Pi&-footed Goose, this was not more than I had found in a typical bird of that species some time previously, and I did not consider it to be sufficiently long to be that of Sushkin’s Goose (Anser neglectus), the minimum measurement for which was given by Pllphkraky (I) as 55 mm.

I shot this specimen on 16 October, 1931, on Morton near Tayport, and had not a t that time read Dr. James Schenk’s (2) description of the doubtful species, Buturlin’s Goose (Alzser carneirostris) ; when, however, I did see his excellent paper on this species and Sushkin’s Goose, some months later, I decided that if ever I should obtain another abnormal Goose

By JOHN BERRY.

IBIS. 1934. PL. I I .

Pink - footed Goose. (Anser brachyrhynchus.)

Bean-Goose. (Anser fabalis segetum.)

1934.1 the Type Anser neglectus in Scotland. 81

of this type 1 ~vou ld send it to him for his opinion, as my first, example, owing to an imfortnnate mistake, had not been preserved.

1 spent many liours watching flocks of Geese feeding, often within a few yards, but), although I secured several interesting varieties, all were undoubted Pink-footed Geese, and it was not until 5 ,January, 1933, that I obtained t’he type I wanted by a chance shot a t a flock passing over Rhynd Farm about two miles north of Leuchars. This bird, an immat,ure female, had the hill eyen shorter than my previous specimen, but, was in other rcspccts similar, having the yellow legs and dark brown, almost black plumihge.

After consultation with Miss Baxter, H.M.B.O.U., and Miss Kintonl, H.M.B.O.U., I sent the head, legs, a,nd samples of the plumage, together with a photogra,ph of the bird taken beside a typical Pink-footed Goose shot the same day, to Dr. Schenk, in Hungary, for his opinion. He most kindly went into the matter in detail, and at once wrote to say that I ‘ this bird is undoubtedly not ajn A . brachyrhynchus; it is an A. cameirostris or neglectus.” Since neither of these species (so far as I am aware) has been hitherto recorded in the British Isles, Dr. Schenk’s expert opinion 04 this specimen is of very considerable interest.

The detailed measurements of t’he two specimens were as follows :-

Young male, shot 16. x. 31. Total length.. ........ Wing ................ Tarsus .............. Bill, culmen .........

,, depth at base .... ,, nail ............ ,, teeth ..........

Rectrices ............

780 mm. 450 ,,

72 9 ,

50 3 .

13-5 ,, 23 17

OR YY ,,

Young femalo, shot 5. i . 33. 770 mm. 460 ,,

70 ,, 47 1,

52 ,, 13 ., 23 16

The plumage, which resembled that of a Bean-Goose (Anser fabalis), was in both specimens dark brown, the wing-coverts especially noticea’cIe for their dark brown colour, the feathers being edged with buff, as were, also, the feathers on the back and flanks, while the tertiaries and tertiary-coverts were

SER. XIII.-VOL. 177. G

&2 [Ibis,

almost black, narrowly edged with buff. The head and neck were greyish-brown, but not so dark as in A. brachyrhynchus, and the rump was very dark grey, not slate-coloured as in that species.

The bilk were more slender than in A . brachyrhynchus and shallower a t the ba,se, the colour being black, except for a band of carmine-red behind the nail-a shade unusual in the Pink- footed Goose-and the legs is the young male were yellow and in the female rather more of an orange-yellow, as in the White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons). Both Specimens were immature, the female being sexually undeveloped and probably in its first year.

It will be seen, therefore, that these two birds exhibited characteristics intermediate between the Pink-footed Goose ( A . brachyrhynchu.s) and the Bean-Goose ( A . fabalis). Dr. Schenk wrote in his first letter that the plumage was “ very typical for A. mrneirostris,” but added that “ the only difference between A. carneirostris and A . neglectus is the yellow leg and, perhaps, a lesser size ” in the former. He has since written, however, that he is now convinced that my bird was an immature and very short-billed specimen of Buturlin’s Goose, although they have an example of S u s h h ’ s Goose which also exhibits a very short bill and nearly yellow legs. But if the chief distinguishing characteristic of A. carneirostris is the yellow colour of the legs, it seems difficult to understand how it is to be separated from A . neglectus, a species of which personally T have only seen the dried skins in museums, and, consequently, cannot speak at first hand.

To this yellow colour of the legs I do not attach, perhaps, quite as much importance as do some authorities on the subject, in spite of my great respect for their opinions. Certainly if a flock of Geese is under observation all having the same leg- colour, this characteristic becomes of very great importance ; but when dealing with isolated specimens, and especially so if these be immatures, the colour of the legs becomes con- siderably less reliable. While watching large packs of Pink- footed Geese feeding I have on several occasions noticed individuals of which the legs were quite distinctly yellow, but

Mr. J . Berry on an unusual Goose of

1934.1 the Type Anser neglectus in Scotland. 8 3

the four examples which 1 have been fortunate enough to secure were in all other respects typical Pink-footed Geese. Since A . neglectus is also reported to have the legs sometimes nearly orange-yellow, with but a slight tinge of carminc-red or flesh-colour, this characteristic would here again appear t o he somewhat indecisive, and the position may be to somc’ extent a parallel to that described by Professor Einar Lonn- berg (3) as occurring in the Yellow-legged Herring-Gulls.

The length of the bills is not regarded by Dr. Schenk as of very great importancc, for he has obtained specimens of A. carneirostris with a culnicn measurement of as little as 52 mm., and of A. nqlectus from 51 to 71 mm., so the differencc. between his specimens and mine is not proportionately verj great, and as I obtained a fully adultYellow-billed Bean-Goose (A. fabalis aruensis) a short time ago in which the culmen was only 52 mm., although I have mcasured examples in which this reached as much as 68 mm., the degree of variation is in this respect very considerable among ell the members of the genus.

Apart from the question of length, the bills of my specimens do display a slight divergence from those of over seventy Pink-footed Geese with which I have compared them, and although my statistics of Bean-Geese are too scanty to be reliable, their bills also seem to be of it somewhat diffcrent form. In the Pink-footed Goosc the nail is characterized by a typical elongated aspect due to the fact that the anterior margin is more strongly curved than the posterior, whereas in my doubtful birds the nails were almost regularly elliptical. If the total length of the bill be divided by the length of the nail (both being taken as a straight line from point to base measured with calipers), we obtain the following figures :- For 8. brachyrhynchus : maximum 3.7, minimum 3.0, average shout 3 4 mm. ; for A . fabalis aruensis : maximum 3-87, minimum 3.50, average about 3.75 mm. ? (statistics unreliable) : for my two doubtful birds 3-701 and 3.616 mm. If the total length of the bill be divided by the vertical depth at the base (measured from the angle of the mouth t o the posterior angle on the upper portion of the bill) we have :-For -4. brachy- rhynchus : maximum 2.27, minimum 1.76, average about

(22

84 On the Occurrence of a n unusual Goose. [Ibis,

1.98 mm. ; for the two doubtful birds 2 2 7 3 and 2-350 mm. (I have not sufficient statistics of other species to be reliable.)

As a distinguishing characteristic between A . brachy- rhynchus and A . negglectus, the late Dr. Peter ESushkin (4) laid stress upon the fact that " the angle formed by the lines which go t o the angle of the mouth from the top of the nail and from the hindermost point on the upper portion of the bill" is in the former acute, but in the latter obtuse, as is also the case with the Bean-Goose (A. fabalis segetum) ; but as this angle is in my specimen approximately a right-angle, it is in the present instance of little assistance. The evidence of the number of teeth is also rather ambig~ous, for although AIphkraky (1) gave the number of teeth for A . neglectus as 23 t o 28, and stated that A. brachyrhynchus had '' at most 2% "-an assertion with which my own observations have been so far in agreement-Dr. C. B. Ticehurst has one example from East Xife which has as many as 25 !

There is one last distinguishing feature to which I attach considerable importance, in spite of the impossibility of its application to preserved skins, and that is the general shape of the body. The Pink-footed Goose is a short, thick-set bird with a short neck and fat, rounded head-in marked contrast to the Bean-Goose, which has a relatively long, slender body, long neck, and thin, flattened head, characters which will, I think, be easily perceived by a comparison between the two accompanying photographs (PI. 11.) of typical birds of those species. Both my doubtful Geese were definitcly even more slender than Bean-Geese, and the heads were equally flattened on the crown, although broader in the occipital region.

Particularly in view of the very unixsual plumage, which was almost darker than that of most Bean-Geese, there would, therefore, seem to be considerable grounds for the supposition that these two unusual birds were definitely not specimens of Anser brachyrhynchus. Could they have been hybrids between this and some other species 1 DP. Schenk in his first letter said that he considered it not altogether impossible that the specimen he examined might have been a hybrid between A. bvachyrhynchus and A . carneirostris or A. neglectus ; but

1934.1 O n Cyanornit,r:L olivucea and Batis rnolitor. 85

personally 1 regard such a possibility as remotely improbable. Apart from tthe enormoiis distance separating the only known breeding-grounds of A . neglectus and A. carneirostris on the Nort'h Island of Novaya Zemlia, or even Kolguev possibly, from the furthest eastern limit of A . brachyrhynchus on Spitsbergen, the characteristic dislike, and even ill-treatment, of other species by the Pink-footed Goosc, both in wild flocks and in captivity, is so habitual that 1 very much doubt whether it would ever interbreed in a wild state with any other species, even were their nesting areas found to be separated by only a few hundred yards instead of hundreds of miles. Moreover, I am convinced, by their close resemblance, that both my specimens ought, to be given a similar classification, whatever that classification may be, and it is unlikely that two hybrids shot at ail interval of fifteen months, and which could not have belonged to the same brood, should be so remarkably .similar.

Be fermces. (1) ALFHBRAKY, S.--The Geese of Europe and Asia (1905). pp. 80

,(2) SCHENK, J.-A Gegelitd (Anser neglectus Sushk.) Magyarorszhgon.

~ Die Suschkingans (Anser neglectus) i n TJiigar-n. Jouni. fur

and 88.

Aquilla, xxxvi. & xxxvii. 1929-30, pp. 54-68.

Ornith. 1922, Band 2, p. 282. (3) LONNBERC, E.-Ibis, 1933, pp. 47-50. (4) SITSEIKIN, P.-Ibis, 1897, p. 7.

V.-Review of two Ajrican Species, Cyanomitra olivacea (Olive Sunbird), and Batis molitor (Chin-spot Flycatcher). By JACK VINCENT, F.R.G.S., M.B.O.U.

CYANOMITXA OIJII.ACEA.

During the work of identifying the coUection of birds brought back from northern Portuguese East Africa, which contained a series of sixteen specimens of Cyanmitra olivaceu obtained at varying altitudes, it became necessary to investi- gate the question of the race C . 0. olivacina (Peters, Journ. Om. 1881, p. 50: Inhambane), which had been secured in