246 On the Breeding of Ross's Snow-Goose in Captivity. 



position, but after the female had laid her eggs the male, 

 who nearly always kept watch close by the nest, became 

 quite aggressive. He would fearlessly attack anybody that 

 approached. 



So far everything had gone as is usual with Geese, but 

 on the 21st of June, in the morning — that is, after 21 clays' 

 incubation, — I was much astonished to find that the young- 

 had already been hatched. 



Although T had bred Geese of very different sizes, from the 

 large Chloephaga magellanica to the small Bernicla jubata, and 

 of very different genera, I had never experienced a shorter 

 time than 28 days as the term of incubation. Probably Chen 

 rossi breeds very far up in the north, where the summers are 

 short and the vegetation short-lived, so that the whole process 

 of propagation of the species has only a restricted time for 

 completion. This may explain why this species has the 

 advantage of a week over the other kinds of Geese. 



To return to this particular brood. All the five eggs had 

 hatched, and the little birds were still in the nest when 1 

 noticed them, forming a most charming group, ever watched 

 as they were by their anxious parents. 



The chicks are of a yellowish grey, darker on the upper- 

 side and lighter below, and have, what makes them most 

 conspicuously beautiful, bright canary-yellow heads, with 

 the most delicate greyish sheen over them, caused by the 

 extremity of the longer down-hairs being of that colour. The 

 bill is black, with a flesh-coloured tip. A little spot in 

 front of each eye is also blackish. The legs are olive-green. 

 The down is wonderfully full and heavy, and it seems almost 

 incredible how such large birds can have come out of such 

 small eggs. Three of the chicks were as described above, 

 but two of them had the part white which in the others 

 was yellow. 



This variation in colour of the chicks is, I may remark, not 

 peculiar to Chen rossi, other species of Geese occasionally 

 shewing the same phenomenon. Thus, for example, the chicks 

 of Chloephaga dispar and C. magellanica also offer two 

 distinct types of coloration, which I find has nothing to do 



