IV ANATIDAE 133 
winter ; the note, often syllabled “ honk-honk,” is at times almost 
a cackle, whence the flocks or “skeins” are called “ gagegles.” 
The nest, placed in herbage or heather, is of grass, moss, twigs, or 
aquatic plants, and contains five or more whitish eggs. 
Chen hyperboreus, the “ Wavy ” of North-East Asia and North- 
West America, with its larger Eastern American race, C. nivalis, and 
C. rossi of Arctic America—which wander south in winter, while 
the first has occurred in Britain and North Europe—are white, 
with black primaries, purplish-red bills and feet; C. rossi having 
a warty base to the maxilla. C. caerulescens, of eastern North 
America, is grey-brown, with white head, bluish rump and wing- 
coverts. The food consists of rushes, insects, and berries. 
Sub-fum. 8. Cereopsinae.—Cereopsis novae hollandiae, the 
Cape Barren Goose of South-East Australia and Tasmania, is grey- 
brown, with large yellow cere, chiefly reddish-orange feet, black 
toes and beak. More terrestrial than its nearest kin, it lays similar 
egos. The very large extinct Cnemiornis, of the superficial deposits 
of New Zealand, was a close ally, with aborted keel to the sternum 
and short wings useless for flight. 
Sub-fam. 9. Plectropterinae—Aex sponsa, the Summer Duck 
of North America and Cuba, accidental in Jamaica and the 
Bermudas, has the upper parts mainly glossy green, with purple 
cheeks, black neck-patches, and white stripes on the face and 
neck; the breast is chestnut with white spots, the throat and belly 
are white, the wing-coverts partly blue, the flanks brown, black, 
and white; the bill is black, white, yellow, purplish, and scarlet ; 
the feet are yellow. It has a long occipital crest. The female is 
grey-brown with metallic gloss, a white throat and eye-space, 
plumbeous and black bill, and brownish feet. This inland species 
feeds on insects, seeds, leaves, and acorns, and lays buff eggs in 
holes in trees. <Aea galericulata, the Mandarin Duck of East 
Asia, is somewhat similar, but has a neck-ruff of narrow chestnut 
feathers streaked with whitish, a chestnut and black “ fan ” formed 
by the decurved innermost secondary, a copper, purple, and green 
crest, and a red-brown bill. The female is brown, grey, and white. 
Nettopus pulchellus, of Australia, New Guinea, and the 
Moluceas, has the upper parts and neck-collar dark green, the 
head browner, the remiges and rectrices black with a white 
wing-bar, the cheeks and lower parts white, the sides marked with 
1 T can hardly agree with Count Salvadori in placing Aew here. 
