THE MOUNTAIN DTICK. 71 



flocks that we see in the autumn are families, which had 

 been bred in the neighbourhood, and that they do not 

 pack and make distant migrations like the wild geese at 

 home. Although a shy bird in the open, they are by no 

 means difficult to creep up to in the thick tea-tree scrub, 

 and many a pair have I killed right and left. They are 

 capital eating, and will fetch from 12*. to 15s. per couple 

 in the market. 



The Cape Barron Goose, the New Holland coreopsis 

 of naturalists, looks like a cross between a goose and 

 a turkey, and is only a rare and occasional visitant to 

 our parts. It is rather larger and heavier than the mag- 

 pie-goose, of a light gray colour, spotted and chequered 

 all over with black; and the beak and feet in shape 

 resemble those of that bird. I never saw them here but 

 twice, once in a small flock, and once when two pitched 

 with the tame geese at Mordialloc (this, I believe, they 

 are fond of doing), and which were caught alive. They 

 soon became tame, and used to stalk about the paddock ; 

 but they were very pugnacious with the other geese : 

 their call-note was a deep trumpet-like sound. They 

 very little resemble a goose when walking, but put me 

 more in mind of the Canada goose in shape than any I 

 know. These are the only two species met with here, 

 and neither of them appear to be true geese. 



The Mountain Duck is the largest and handsomest of 

 all the ducks out here, nearly as large as the bernicle 

 goose of Europe, and in colour resembling the male 

 sheldrake. They are generally seen feeding on the plains, 



