158



On the Maned goose.



unmixed with envy, a female continually going in and out of a nest-

box in Kew Gardens, but I never heard that there w r as any result.


In 1905 Mr. Blaauw successfully bred this goose, and states

that in their first plumage the young resemble the adult female, but

the dark markings are not so well defined. The goslings in “ down ”

must be singularly attractive little people


These birds, like Mandarins and Summer ducks, nest in hollow

trees in a wild state, so no doubt require artificial nest-boxes in

confinement.


I kept my pair with full wings for a year or more (and I

believe Mr. Astley’s birds were also full winged), but eventually I

pinioned them in case of accidents ; they seldom seem to take the

trouble to fly, but I feared they might leave in the nesting season

or fall a prey to the ever-present lout with a gun. This fate befel a

pair of Carolina ducks which were brought up by their mother, and

I never troubled to catch or pinion them. However they stayed

about for two years; I missed the duck in the spring and was sure

the was incubating, but could not find the nest. After a time she

returned and I concluded she had lost her nest through some accident,

and then heard that she had been “ bolted ” by a ferret from a rabbit

hole at the foot of a tree and that the keeper had taken the eggs ;

this he denied, but I found out afterwards that he had taken the eggs

(eleven) and hatched them under a bantam, but all the young ones

died. Eventually the pair strayed away to a pond about four miles

away where a shepherd saw 7 them, went home and got a gun, shot

them both on the water, and took them home and ate them ! And

this in pre-war days


A very fine adult male straw-necked Ibis was shot near here

by a gamekeeper in July, 1916; it would be interesting to know where

this bird had escaped from. He was sitting in a hedge close to the

river when the keeper flushed him and was very wild, by the man’s

account. I saw the bird after it had been “ set up ” by a local artist

in taxidermy, but it was not at all badly done.f



* [There never have been pre-war days for the birds, since mankind must needs be

slaughtering them at ail times and seasons !—Ed.]


| [We hope this man was informed of the idiotic nature of his destructive action

He ought to have been fined, if possible.—E d.]



