1022 XESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



questioned some of our small craft coasting men, and the general answer 

 was that the bird is very numerous on all the grassy uninhabited islands 

 between here and the head of the Australian Bight. Birds are to be 

 found at times on practically all the inhabited islands ; only, as t he 

 people settle, the birds become scarce in the neighbourhood. 



" Some years ago fishermen in Spencer Gulf did a thriving trade 

 in the spring catching young birds and fattening them for Ciiristmas, 

 but the Government stopped all that by enforcing the close season laws. 



" The only places I have seen them wild are on the coast near Port 

 Elliott, at the head of Encounter Bay, and at Port Willunga, about 

 thirty miles south of Adelaide. 



" All along this coast the wheat-fields go within 400 to 500 yards 

 of the sea. The young birds leave the islands to the west when they 

 are fledged (about November), and some find their way to the wheat- 

 fields, where they sometimes do a great deal of harm (so the fanners 

 will tell you)." 



Their numbers in Bass Strait are becoming alarmingly small. A 

 bird so valuable and important should be rigidly protected. The close 

 sca.son is faulty. On the Victorian side the Geese are protected from 

 June 14tli ; in Tasmania — to which the majority of the islands in Bass 

 Strait belong — fi-om August 1st. It can be proved that the birds in the 

 wild state sometimes lay as early as April and May, while the female 

 of a pair at the Zoological Gardens last season laid her full clutch by 

 the middle of June. 



We read that in the early days Cape Barren Geese wore so tame 

 that they might be knocked down with sticks, or even captured by 

 hand. Since then they must have changed their habit-s, because the 

 Geese ilew away long before we even approached their island homes. 

 On the expedition of the Field Naturalists'Club of Victoria to Funieaux 

 Group, in 1893, we saw a flock of about thirty birds on Woody Island. 

 The protective colour of the grey plumage in a remarkable degi'ec pre- 

 vented the birds from Ix'ing readily noticed on shore, amongst the gi'ey 

 lichen-covered rocks, where they were feeding. As we landed the birds 

 rose, wheeled round the island, then flew down Franklin Sound to .some 

 other islet. Cape Barren Geese received their name from the early 

 voyagers, who found them on Cape Barren Island, which forms the 

 south side of the sound. Wc saw a flock of about twenty on Chalky 

 Island, while a few, iiu'hiding large goslings, were observed on the 

 Babel Islands, off the east coast of Flinders Island. Here we shot 

 two, which were roasted for camp pui-posos. Tlic flesh, although some- 

 what dry, is excellent, being tasty and gamey. 



Mrs. Robinson, of Green Island, who has observed the birds for 

 many years, as well as kept some in captivity, furnished us with an 

 interesting account of their habits. 



?]ach bird possesses its own mate. Should a Goose in caiilivity 

 lose her mate, the prol)ability is that she joins a wild flock, and never 

 returns. Should the gander lose his wife, he entices a wild bird to 

 dwell with him. An old bird never mates with a young one, nor do 

 young from the same clutch pair or breed. The birds do not lay till 

 tliey are two years old. The Geese have a voracious appetite, their 



