COOMBES RAH (1948) Short announcements: A note on the status of Anser arvensis rossicus Buturlin in the Netherlands. LIMOSA 21 (2): 101-101.

The statements concel1ling Dutch specimens of the race of tundra bean goose Anser arvensis mss{cus Buturlin, contained in a paper by Dr K. H. Voou s (Limosa 21, 1948 pp. 11-12) reveal a rather inadequate idea of the status and distribution of this goose in the Netherlands. In February 1947 I pointed out to Dr Voous that in addition to the one specimen of rossicus (in the Zoologisch Museum, Amsterdam) recognised by him, there are at least 25 skins of rossicus in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden, and the British Museum (Natural History), London, and also three in my own collection, all of which were shot in the Netherlands between 1896 and 1947. In South Holland in January 1947 I spent a week watching the flocks of bean geese on the ice and on the snow-covered polders, conditions of light which made visibility exceptionally good, and I shot three specimens of rossicus to confirm identification. From field observation and from the list of localities where these 28 Dutch specimens preserved in the collections mentioned were shot, it is evident to me that the tundra race rossicus is a common winter visitor, at any rate in hard winters, to the provinces of South Holland and Zeeland. I have previously stated this fact in general terms in my note on the races of bean geese in the Netherlands in Limosa, 20, 1947, pp. 229-230. I can well believe that the goose-hunters on the south coast of the IJsselmeer can distinguish between the two forms of Groote Rietgans (bean goose) by their voices, for I detected this difference myself in the case of rossicus on my first visit to Holland in the winter 1946-47 - but then I had had long previous experience in the field with the closely related forms arvensis and brachyrhynchus. I must emphasise however that to my ear the differences in voice are so slight that they are not an infallible means of identification, and can only be of use to goose-hunters and other field experts. If among the ornithologists of Holland, many of whom are my good friends, there is one who is in addition a goose-enthusiast and a goose-hunter, I would be very glad to meet him.

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