130 Breeding of the Lesser White-fronted Goose.


Although it was fully forty-eight hours after the Gosling was hatched,

and though both eggs felt cold to the touch, I found that one was

chipped. So I put them under a hen without delay, and in a few

hours a second young bird was hatched, though it was not very

vigorous, and died on the fifth day.


The young Gosling with the parents throve exceedingly. On

July 27th I have a note that it was feathering, and that I could see

the ends of the primaries showing through the down. The parents

were most attentive, but very suspicious, and never brought their

young one up to feed, so it was reared entirely on grass, which, as

the weather was showery, was constantly growing.


Mr. H. Seebohm exhibited to the Zoological Society a young

female of this Goose, shot in September, 1886, on the Northumberland

coast, which showed no white on the forehead. In my bird the

orange edges to the eyelids, which are a special characteristic of this

lesser form of the White-fronted Goose, as well as traces of the white

forehead, were visible by the end of November. At the present

date—January 20th—the young bird is distinguishable from its adult

companions by its darker and duller plumage, the feathers on back

and wing-coverts wanting the pale edges of the adult. The patch on

the forehead is not so extensive as in the old birds, and not of such

a pure white. There are at present no black bars on the breast,

though with a glass I can distinguish some irregular patches of

slightly darker shade than the rest of the under-plumage, and which

may later on develop into bars.


Owing to “ war conditions ” I was unable to hand-rear

anything last summer, but two broods of Falcated Ducks—and seven

three-—were reared by the parents, all except three eventually flying

away. Three young Sonnerat’s Jungle Fowl were reared by the

parents running loose, a fourth being killed, as we believed, by

Jackdaws. To my great disappointment the first severe frost of the

autumn was too much for the cockerel and two pullets, and I was

of course unable to give them any artificial heat. They were probably

weakened by the poor quality of the only food obtainable.


[Any member knowing of a previous case of breeding the

Lesser White-fronted Goose in captivity is requested to communicate

with the Editor.]



