GOOSEBERRY. 



668 



the back, wings, and tail, are dull brown, with pale 

 edges ; belly white. In other respects they are 

 similar to the male, but they have a smaller knob 

 over the bill. This very handsome and highly 

 ornamental bird appears to be capable of enduring 

 almost every variety of climate, and of breeding 

 freely in them all ; and we do not know, within the 

 whole range of the poultry-yard, a finer ornament 

 than the swan goose. It has been pretty generally 

 introduced by those who attend to ornament as well 

 as to use in their domestic birds ; and we believe 

 that it begins to be distributed in the wild state over 

 some parts of Europe. 



The birds which seem to connect the geese with 

 the wading birds, but which still retain the principal 

 characters of the goose genus, are southern birds, 

 being found in South America, arid still more strik- 

 ingly marked in Australia. The length to which the 

 present article has extended leaves room to do little 

 else than to mention their names. 



THE OJRINOCO GOOSE (A. jubatus). This species 

 appears to be pretty extensively distributed over 

 South America, and though it has got the name of the 

 Orinoco goose, we believe that it was first discovered 

 in Brazil by Spix. It is of a variegated colour. The 

 head, neck, chest, and vent-feathers, and also a mir- 

 ror or spot in the wings resembling those in the 

 cheeks, are white. The feathers on the occiput and 

 back of the neck are produced and pointed, giving 

 something the appearance of a mane. The upper 

 part, and also the under part, are reddish ; the wings 

 and tail are of a black colour, with violet reflections ; 

 and the turn of the wing is furnished with a horny 

 spur, something similar to that on the geese in the 

 corresponding latitudes of Africa. The habits of this 

 species are not very well known, though it is reported 

 to partake as much of the character of a wading bird 

 as of that of a swimming one. 



THE HALF-WEBBED GOOSE (A. scmipalmatus) is a 

 native of New Holland. The upper parts are grey ; 

 the head, neck, and thighs, are blackish brown ; there 

 is a white collar round the neck, and the upper part 

 of the rump is of the same colour. The length of 

 the bird is about two feet nine. The webs extend 

 only half the length of the toes, and thus it can walk 

 much more easily than those which have the feet 

 completely webbed. It also perches on trees, and in 

 some of its habits approaches to the herons. We 

 have not, however, a very full account of its charac- 

 ter in its native locality. 



CEHEOPSIS. This bird, which has no very definite 

 English name, the colonists of its native Australia 

 not being the best of all nomenclators, ought, per- 

 haps, to range in a separate genus ; but still it has a 

 good many characters in common with the geese, 

 and more especially with the one last mentioned. 

 It has the bill short, strong, and covered with a cere 

 or naked skin, extended towards the point, which is 

 arched and truncated. The lower mandible is sloped 

 off at its extremity ; the nostrils are very large, pierced 

 in the middle of the bill, and entirely open. Four 

 toes directed to the front palmated with notched 

 membranes. The middle toe is shorter than the tar- 

 sus ; and the fourth toe, which turns to the front, 

 is furnished with a very large claw. The coverts 

 of the wings are as long as the quills, of which the 

 first is a little shorter than the other ; there is a blunt 

 spur on the turn of the wing ; and the tail is broad, 

 rounded at the point, and composed of sixteen feathers. 



The cere and the naked skin, to the eyes, are yel- 

 lowish ; the principal colour of the plumage is grey- 

 ish ash, darker on the upper part than on the uiulor. 

 The coverts of the wings are blackish. The quills 

 are dull brown at their tips. The naked parts of the 

 legs, which extend a considerable way above the 

 tarsal joints, are yellowish orange ; but the toes and 

 claws are black. 



The body of this bird is much shorter than that of 

 the true geese, and is more of a triangular shape, or 

 tapering from the anterior part of the sternum to the 

 tail. The pectoral muscles are large ; the windpipe 

 is also large, but of uniform dimensions throughout, 

 and resembling those of the herons and bitterns. 

 The stomach is a true gizzard, indicating that the 

 bird is principally a vegetable feeder. In some of 

 the accounts the head of this bird is represented as 

 being covered with naked skin, but such is not the 

 fact ; it has been brought to this country, and we 

 believe that broods have been reared under the 

 management of the Zoological Society of London. 

 Still, however, the characters of the bird, or rather 

 its habits in a state of nature, are but imperfectly 

 understood ; and we are still in want of much inform- 

 ation respecting it. 



There is one structural difference between this bird 

 and the typical geese, in which the two species noticed 

 immediately preceding also agree, and that is the dif- 

 ferent form of the keel of the sternum. In the geese 

 that part of the bone is not low ; but it is of uniform 

 height throughout great, part of its length, and nearly 

 straight in its inferior outline ; whereas in the species 

 now mentioned, the great development of the ster- 

 num is forwards, as if the muscular power of the birds 

 were more accumulated on the immediate organs of 

 flight, and the lower outline is much more curved. 

 In this respect the sternum, which in birds is a most 

 characteristic part of the skeleton, approaches in 

 shape to that of the long-flighted wading birds, the 

 herons, storks, and others of that tribe ; and as there 

 is generally a correspondence between the organ and 

 the formation, we may naturally suppose that these 

 birds combine the habits of wading birds with those 

 of geese ; and thus they are enabled to summer and 

 winter, without migration, in countries which are sub- 

 ject to great variations in respect of moisture and 

 drought. Too little is known, however, of the habits 

 and movements of the tropical and southern geese 

 for enabling us to speak positively respecting them ; 

 and this article has already extended as far as the 

 birds, important as they are, will bear. 



GOOSEBERRY, is the well known Ribcs gros- 

 sularia of Linnaeus. It is found wild in many places 

 in Britain, and has been long cultivated in gardens for 

 its very useful fruit, both green and mature. Of the 

 Grossularia or aculeate Ril>cs, there are fifteen or 

 sixteen known species, the fruits of all which are eat- 

 able, but the varieties of R. uva crispa, are the most 

 valued, and those in most general culture : the rough 

 and smooth gooseberries (.lylvcstrix and saliva], con- 

 sidered the two chief varieties of Riies uva crispa, are 

 often esteemed distinct species ; the former being the 

 R. grossularia, and the latter the R. uva crispa of 

 Linnaeus. De Candolle, however, believes them to 

 be specifically the same. 



In Britain, gooseberries are much cultivated, espe- 

 cially in Lancashire, where from prizes being offered 

 by the provincial Horticultural Societies, berries have 

 been produced, each weighing an ounce or an ounce 



