SWANS-SPUR-WINGED GEESE. 293 



bills. Australia has one species, the Black Swan (Chenopis atrata), and 

 finally we have the Coscoroba Swan (Coscoroba Candida) which is found from 

 Chili and Patagonia to Argentina and Uruguay. Of this species Mr. W. H. 

 Hudson writes : "In their habits, language, and flight they differ much from 

 the Black-necked Swan, and the country people call them Ganso (Goose), 

 probably on account of their Goose-like habit of sometimes feeding away 

 from the water, or because their flesh has the flavour of Wild Goose. As a 

 rule, they go in small parties of five or six individuals, but sometimes flocks 

 numbering two or three hundred are seen in the cold season. Their 

 migrations are very irregular, and sometimes they are exceedingly abundant 

 in a certain district one year and absent from it the next. When disturbed 

 they utter a loud, musical, trumpeting cry in three notes, the last with a 

 falling inflection ; and, their wings being much longer proportionately than 

 in the black-necked species, they rise with greater ease, and have a much 

 freer and an almost soundless flight." 



The Semipalmated Goose (Anseranas semipalmata) is the sole representative 

 of a distinct sub-family Anseranatinw, with the toes only half- webbed, and 

 the hind toe very long, and on a level with the other toes. It is an inhabitant 

 of Australia and Tasmania, and is still plentiful in some districts, though it 

 has disappeared from many places where it once was numerous. Gould says 

 that, in Northern Australia "it occurs in such countless multitudes that it 

 forms one of the chief articles of food of the aborigines, and was of the 

 utmost value to Leichardt and his party during their adventurous 

 journey from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, as shown in numerous parts 

 of his interesting account of the expedition. So dense are the flocks that 

 occur in the northern parts of the country, that the natives are able to 

 procure numbers of them by spearing," and, says Leichardt, "it seemed 

 that they only spear them when flying, and always crouch down when they 

 see a flight of them approaching ; the Geese, however, know their enemies so 

 well that they immediately turn when they see a native rise and put his spear 

 into his throwing-stick ; some of my companions-asserted that they had seen 

 them hit their object at the almost incredible distance of 200 yds." an 

 assertion which Gould says he could readily believe, from what he has 

 himself witnessed. This Goose has a very remarkable trachea, nearly 5 in. 

 in length, and mostly lying outside the pectoral muscle under the skin. 



The next sub-family of the Geese consists of the Spur- winged Geese (sub- 

 family Plectropterince), and several allied forms. They have fully webbed 

 feet, a very long hind toe, and long tail-feathers. The true Spur-winged 

 Geese (Plectropterus) have the lores naked and caruncles on the forehead and 

 base of the bill, while on the wing they carry a formidable spur, from which 

 feature they derive their popular name. There are four species of Spur- 

 winged Geese, all confined to Africa, admitted by Count Salvadori, the best 

 authority on the Anseres, but even he is obliged to allow that there may 

 really exist but a single species after all. 



Only one other genus with bare lores and caruncles on the face is known, 

 and this is the genus Cairina, with the single species G. moschata, the 

 Muscovy Duck of Tropical America. Another prominent form of the 

 Plectropterince is the Knobbed Goose (Sarcidiornis), of which there are two 

 species, S. melanonota of. India and Africa, and $. carunculata of Southern 

 Brazil and Argentina. 



We remember seeing the "Comb Duck," as Indian naturalists call the 

 Indian Sarcidiornis, on one occasion during our journey through the 



