GO CKKKOPs'lN'fl!. 



Sut-family CEREOPSIN.^. 



CS-enils OEP2EOP=3I3, L„iha„i. 



Cereopsis novae-hoUandiae. 



CAPK HAKKEN (iudSK. 



C'-rni/i^is ii.ovcv-hol/anili:! , Lath, liul. Orii. Suppl., p. Ixvii. (ItiOl); (ioulcl, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. 

 VTI., pi. 6(1S4.S); ill., Hanilbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. 11., y. 3.50 (ISGr.); Salvad., Cat. Bds. 

 Brit. Mus., V(,l. XXVII., p. 79 (1895;; Sharpe, Hand 1. K.ls , Vol. 1 , p 210n899). 



Adult malk. — Crmoi <;/ //le /ifaii yfll(ni-if:li iihite : nmai mli r af iIip phnnoge. abovf and heh,iv 

 pale hroivniiih-grp.y, the mediaii and (jrenter n/pper iriny-coverts iinth ari»iitded spot of blackinh-broiim, 

 lhi> iseapidars toith darker hrnini, centres ; apical half of tlie primaries, tips if the secondaries, upper 

 and nnder /ail-coverts ami /ail feathers bron iiish-hUick. 7'iifiil h-nylh ■!// i'nches, ivitiij IS, tail 8, 

 I'Hl 175, tnrsns ,jv7. 



Adult female. Similar in phiniage In thr nialf. 



I )istiiliniio!i. — Victoria, Soutli Australia, W'ebteni .\ustralia, some of the Islands of Bass 

 Strait, Tasmania. 



f u(^ H K range of the Cape Barren Goose e.\tendso\er the st)utheni portions of the Australian 

 J- coast from east to west, also the coastal districts of Tasmania; it is, liowever, far more 

 abundantly distributed on the contiguous islands, and particularly some of those of Bass Strait. 

 C>n the mainland it is probably more common in South-western X'ictoria than elsewhere. In 

 my school days I can remember when these birds were fairly plentilul in a state of domestication 

 near Melbourne, and on one occasion an apparently wild but disabled bird was captured on the 

 sand dunes near Hobson Bay, between Albett Park and St. Kilda. Occasionally, too, these birds 

 were e.xposed for sale alive in the poulterer's shops in I\'Ielbourne, where they were well known 

 to school boys as " Pig Geese," from their disagreeable grunt-like notes. I am informed that 

 they are still bred for sale by a resident of the Western District of Victoria, although 

 farther south, near the coast, wild birds are destroyed on account of the quantities of grass 

 consumed by them. In South .\ustralia Mr. ,\. /eitz informs me tliat it still breeds on some 

 islands in Spencer (.iulf, laying four or five eggs for a sitting. In Western Australian waters in 

 1900-1, the officers of H.M.S. "Penguin" found it breeding in numbers on the islands of 

 Recherche Archipelago. Feasting for a long time on salt provisions, the officers found these 

 Geese eggs a welcome addition to their larder. Ciould remarks : — " This is one of the .Australian 

 birds which particularly attracted the notice of the earlier voyagers to that country, by nearly 

 every one of whom it is mentioned as being very plentiful on all the islands of I:>ass Straits, and 

 so tame that it might easily be knocked down with stick's, or even captured by hand; dining 

 my sojourn in the country I visited many of the localities above mentioned, and found so far 

 from its being still numerous, it is almost e.vtirpated ; I killed a pair on Isabella Island, one of 

 a small group near Flinders Island, on the 12th January, 1839."" It is pleasing to record, 

 however, some seventy years later, that although diminished in numbers undoubtedly since the 

 advent of white men, and the placing of the remnant of the Tasmanian race on some of the larger 

 islands of Bass Strait, these interesting Geese may still be foimd there. 



From Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South Wales, Mr. Thos. P. .\ustin wrote me on 

 19th November, 1009 : — " A few years ago Cape Barren Geese (Cereopsis novee-hoUaiuUir ) were 

 rattier numerous throughout the Western District of Victoria, and were always a favourite bird 



♦ Handbk. Bds. Austr , Vol. II , p. 350 (1855). 



