March ], 1S70.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



51 



OCCURRENCE OF THE SPUR-WINGED 

 GOOSE IN WILTSHIRE. 



(Aiiser gambeusis, Briss.) 



SOME inaccuracies about locality, &c, having 

 crept into a brief newspaper paragraph an- 

 nouncing the occurrence of the Gamboo, or Spur- 

 winged Goose, in Wiltshire, I am now enabled, 

 through the kindness of friends, to furnish you with 

 more correct particulars concerning the reappear- 

 ance of a specimen of this very rare visitor. 



A gentleman who resides at the Manor Farm, 

 Upavon, and not, as erroneously stated, at " Charl- 

 ton Earm," or " Netheravon," had noticed from his 

 window a large strange-looking bird beside a pond 

 near the homestead, in company with his tame 

 geese. Surprised to see how amicable it was with 

 his own birds, and curious to ascertain what it 

 could be, he went out, hoping to get a closer view 

 of it, when suddenly it took wing, alighting again 

 in a meadow not far off. Seeing enough to convince 

 him that the bird was very wild and very peculiar 

 in appearance, and not wishing to lose it altogether, 

 he returned for his gun, and succeeded in shooting 

 it. Eortunately it was sent for preservation to a 

 "naturalist" living in Devizes, and to him I am 

 indebted for the following account :— " This bird," 

 he writes, "was in excellent plumage and in very 

 good condition, and was, I believe, a two-year old 

 bird, or its back plumage would have been of a 

 black hue, whereas it was mottled with grey; 

 when walking, its gait was very upright, more so 

 than our tame geese, and its legs are longer. The 

 spur upon its wings is about three-eighths of an inch 

 long ; and I found, upon examining the contents of 

 its stomach, that it had been feeding upon corn and 

 vegetable substances. It weighed four pounds one 

 ounce, was twenty-seven inches in length, and four 

 feet two inches in breadth. According to the in- 

 structions received, I stuffed it in an upright posi- 

 tion, just as it had been seen when alive." 



On the authority of Sir William Jardine, I find 

 that the Spur-winged Goose was introduced into our 

 Eauna upon a single specimen killed in Cornwall in 

 June, 1821, presented to Mr. Bewick, serving for 

 the figure in his Water-birds, and now deposited 

 in the Museum at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. This 

 Cornish bird had been seen for several days near a 

 small fishing-place (St. Germains, I believe), and, 

 like our gregarious Wiltshire bird, associated with 

 the common geese at a farm in the vicinity, and was 

 much disturbed before being finally shot. Bewick 

 describes this specimen as follows: — "The bill is 

 reddish-yellow, with a jointed protuberance at the 

 base of the upper mandible ; the upper parts of the 

 head and neck are dingy brown ; the auriculars and 

 sides of the throat white ; sides of the breast and of 

 the upper plumage appear black, but their colour is 



lost, particularly in the scapulars and tertials, which 

 are most resplendently bronzed and glossed with 

 brilliant green, and most of the outer webs of the 

 feathers partake of the same hue ; on the bends of 

 the wings or wrist is placed a strong white horny 

 spur, turning upwards, about five-eighths of an inch 

 in length, and pointing rather inwards ; the whole 

 of the edges of the wing, from the alula spuria to 

 the elbow and shoulder, are white ; all the under 

 parts the same." 



The second Spur-winged Goose of which we have 

 an account was killed about the middle of February, 

 1S55, near Banff, N.B., as recorded in the Natu- 

 ralist for August in that year, by Mr. Thomas 

 Edwards, of that place : it was a companion of 

 domestic geese at a farm. The late Mr. Bennet has 

 left us a very careful description of one kept iu the 

 gardens of the Zoological Society, Loudon : he 

 alludes to the rarity of this species in our collec- 

 tions, notwithstanding its early introduction into 

 this country, and considers it difficult to i cclima- 

 tize in the north of Europe. The Gamboo Goose 

 was confounded by W'illughby, aud afterwards by 

 Buffon, with a variety of the Egyptian Goose — a 

 bird also said to be armed at the carpal joints with 

 tubercles or spurs, visible only when the wings are 

 expanded, being concealed at other times beneath 

 the plumage. What the uses of these spurs are 

 we know not ; but their situation would lead us to 

 infer that they may assist the bird in defending 

 itself when attacked by enemies, and, probably, may 

 serve as " fenders " to protect the wings from un- 

 due friction when forcing its way through the dense 

 aquatic vegetation so characteristic of African rivers. 

 I am not aware that anything is known about the 

 nidification of the Spur-winged Goose, or that its 

 egg has ever been described. Swainsou considers 

 it as a rasorial type. Our Wiltshire specimen was 

 killed on the 4th of September, 1869, and is now 

 in the possession of the gentleman occupying the 

 Manor Earm, at Upavon. 



Bainton House, Reading. Henry Moses, M.D. 



HINTS ON PRESERVING LARV.E. 

 By H. Pryer. 



SOME two years ago, seeing some preserved 

 larvae in the possession of Mr. Bond, I became 

 desirous to know the method by which they were 

 prepared ; and, after a good many experiments, I 

 attained success. Believing that there are many 

 others who would like to be informed of the modus 

 operandi, I have pleasure in giving them the result 

 of my experience, as follows : — 



Having procured a larva, immerse it in a solution 

 of alum or pyroligneous acid for a short time; then 

 gently squeeze the inside out, upon or between 

 pieces of blotting-paper, taking care not to tear or 



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