157



THE


Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



Third Series.— Yol. VIII.—No. 6.—All rights reserved. APRIL, 1917.



THE MANED GOOSE (ChenonetU Jabata).


By Hugh Wormald.


Our Editor has recently, on more than one occasion, mentioned

his Maned geese,and I can only enthusiastically concur with all the

eulogies he has heaped on them. Unfortunately, like all Australian

birds, they are very difficult to obtain now. Some six years ago I

received a pair from Holland, and though they throve well and were

given every inducement, they made no attempt to go to nest, and this

in spite of the fact that they were always devoted to each other and

exceedingly tame, I am induced to believe that they were too tame,

for in my experience, very tame birds do not breed so easily as less

tame ones. My pair always walked or swam to meet anybody who

went near them, and immediately on reaching one the gander always

drew himself up, threw his head back and uttered his rather feeble

note. Like all geese they are great grass eaters—an advantage over

most birds in these difficult times.


Apart from their very attractive ways, Maned geese, especially

ganders, are very beautiful birds, being a mixture of soft greys and

black, with deep brown head and brilliant green speculum, broadly

edged with white ; for eyes they have the best boot buttons. The

females remind one rather of those of the Summer duck, the jet black

abdomen and under tail coverts of the male give place to pure white

in the female.


I am not aware that Maned geese have ever bred in this

country, though in the spring of 1914 I watched with interest, not


* [This bird is known as the Wood Duck in Australia.— Ed.]



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