SPUR-WINGED GOOSE. 305 



to its native haunts, nor does it even appear to inhabit those 

 portions of Africa which lie to the north of the tropic of 

 Cancer. The Editor has no doubt that the occurrences 

 recorded have been those of birds escaped from confinement ; 

 but, inasmuch as the Author thought fit to include the 

 species, it is retained in the present Edition of a work 

 which still bears his name. 



A specimen of this African Goose, killed in Cornwall in 

 June 1821, was presented to Bewick by Mr. Mewburn ; 

 and the figure in the 1826 Edition of Bewick's ' British 

 Birds ' was taken from this example, which is in the 

 Museum at Newcastle. Mr. G. T. Fox (' Synopsis,' p. 252) 

 gives the following particulars, supplied by Mr. Mewburn : — 

 ** * When first seen, it was in a field about four miles from 

 St. Germain's, near which it remained for two or three 

 days. Being several times disturbed by attempts to shoot 

 it, it came down upon the shore of the St. Germain's River, 

 when the following day, the 20th of June, 1821, it was 

 shot by John Brickford in a wheat-field about a mile from 

 St. Germain's. Some gentlemen who saw it the following 

 day, requested him to let me have it ; but he had a wife 

 who thought she could stuff" it ; but being soon convinced of 

 her inability, she cut off the wings for dusters, and threw 

 the skin away ; and it was not till three weeks afterwards 

 that I heard of the circumstance, when I sent a servant, who 

 brought it covered with mud, the head torn ofi", but luckily 

 preserved, as also one wing, when I put it together as well as 

 I was able.' The skin, in this state, was forwarded to New- 

 castle by Mr. Mewburn, for Bewick's use, whence it passed 

 into Mr. R. Wingate's hands, who has most ably reset it." 



In 'The Naturalist' for 1855 (p. 181), Mr. Thomas 

 Edward describes a bird shot about the middle of February 

 of that year, near Banff"; in the winter of 1858-59 one was 

 shot on the Thames, as described by Mr. Clark Kennedy 

 ('Birds of Berks and Bucks,' p. 201); and, according to 

 Dr. H. Moses (* Science Gossip,' 1870, p. 51), one was 

 shot at Upavon in Wiltshire on the 4th September, 1869. 

 Mr. Sclater states that this Goose was one of the earliest 



VOL. IV. K R 



