138 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



Fin. G4. — Foot of Auseranas. 



toes. Tlie bill is short, very thick at base, its upper outline stroncly convex ; nearly 

 the whole beak to a little behind the large nail is covered with a tumid cere of a 

 lightly greenish yellow color, in the anterior ]iart of which the roundish nostrils o]ien. 

 In regard to the peculiarities of the skull itself we only speak of the j)roj)orlionately 

 short lachrymal region, a part which in typical Anseres is very much elongated. The 

 keel of the sternum is very deej), its inferior edge very curved, and the anterior angle 

 pointing comparatively far forwards. 



The color of the Cereopsis, or Cape Barren goose, as it is -called by the colonists, is 

 of a bea\itiful brownish ash, lighter on the top of the head, and with romidisli black 

 8]>ots on the wing-coverts. Tiic eye is vermilion red, the tarsus orange, and the toes 

 and webs bl.ickish. Anomalous as is the structure ol' this bird, its habits are not less 

 so, it being a 'swimmer' which carefully and entirely avoids the water. It iidiabits the 

 interior dry plains, iis diet being, of course, exclusively vegetable. It is a '.swimmer' 

 and 'sifter' modified into a 'grazer.' Needless to say that its dark flesh is delicious 

 eating, and, conseiiuently, these shy birds have been ]iersec\ited mercilessly both by 

 the natives and by tlie white settlers, the result being that the Cereopsis had become 

 so scarce, as early as Gould's travels in Australia, that 'the old bushman' only met it 



twice in a wild state. It breeds, how- 



ever, in confinement, and is easily tamed, 

 but as it is very pugnacious and impe- 

 rious it is not a desirable addition to the 

 ))oultry-yard, and the rather extensive 

 domestication of this bird, whii-li s]>rang 

 u]p (luring the early d.ays of the colony, has gradu.-dly subsided. 



Australia is the habitat of another not less remarkable goose-like 

 bird, the ])eeuli;iiities of which seem to us too great to allow it to lie 

 kept in the other families, and hence we would make it the tyi)e of 

 the AxsERANATiD.t:. It has usually been referred to the following 

 group, to which it, perhajis, m.ay also be nearest allied, but who 

 ould recognize the foot re](resciited in the cut as that of a goose? 

 he long front toes, only united at base by a small mendirane, and anned 

 ith long and sharp claws, and es])ecially the remarkably lengthened and 

 rong hind toe, which is inserted nearly at the same level as the othei-s, 

 are characters so unitpie among Anseres that ase]iarate position can hardly 

 be denied the owner, and the feet, indee<l, strongly suggest those of the screamers. 

 The bill is also very peculiar, a warty skin covering the beak from the nail and the 

 face to behind the eyes. The convolutions and ])osition of the windpipe are most 

 extraordinary and deserve to be mentioned. Yarrell, who made this ]iart of the bird's 

 anatomy a special study, describes tlie windpipe tlnis : "The trachea is situated on 

 tlie outside of the left pectoral muscle, under the skin, ."iufliciently raised under the 

 wing that respiration would not be imi)eded when the bird rested with its breast 

 on the ground, the parallel tubes being firmly attached both to the muscle and the 

 skin by cellular ti.ssue. The clavicle of the right side of the bird is of the usual 

 character, but that on the left is both shorter ami wider, having an ajicrture about 

 the middle, the sides diverging with a projecting point on the inner side, to which 

 the tube of the trachea is firmly attached, about two inches .above the bone of divari- 

 cation. The tr.achea lying on the left side of the bird, the lower jiortion of the tube, 

 in its pass.age to the lung, crosses the left branch of the fureula at a right angle, 



