PLECTROPTERUS NIGER. 



BLACK SPUR- WINGED GOOSE. 



(Plate 47.) 



Pledropterus niger, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1877, p. 47, Pl. vii; Sal- 

 vadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mils., xxvii, p. 50 (1895) ; Shelley, 

 Birds of Afr., i, p. 170 (1896); Sharpe, Hand-List of Birds, "i, 

 p. 208 (1899) : Sclater, Ann. S. Afr. Miis., iii, p. 351 (1905) ; 

 Sclater & Stark, Birds of S. Afr., iv, p. 118 (1906). 



Pledropterus gambensis niger, Reichenow, Vogel Afrikas, i, p. 136 

 (1900-01). 



Local Names. As for P. gambensis. 



Description. The bird figured is an adult male. This drawing was 

 made from a bird which I bought as a goshng in Potchefstroom 

 five years ago, and which is still (1912) living in Norfolk, 

 England. 



Length about 40 in. This species is just as variable in size 

 as P. gambensis, no two being exactly similar. 



Mr. W. L. Sclater suspects that P. niger and P. gambensis are 

 different forms of the same species, and that the differences are 

 due to age, but the present bird is the common one of the Orange 

 River Colony and the Transvaal, where I have seen them in flocks 

 up to as many as a couple of hundred in number. Among these 

 flocks there would perhaps be three or four birds apparently 

 answering to the description of P. gambensis, but if the age theory 

 were correct there would surely be many more. 



Further, the bird figured is at least five years old, and has not 

 yet begun to change. 



I consider that P. niger is a good species, but that it grades 

 into P. gambensis the further north it is found, and probably 

 interbreeds with it. 



These geese are among the most common water-fowl in 

 South Africa. 



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