428 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS! ZOOLOGY. 



"Dates of Hatching of Upland Geese. (In Zoological Gardens, London.) 



1863. May 4th. 1872. April 22nd. 



1865. April soth. 1874. " 26th. 



1868. May 25th. " May 5th. 



1869. " 2ist. " " i7th. 



1870. " 8th. 1875. April 29th. 



1871. April 23rd. 1878. June i5th." 



(P. L. Sclater, P. Z. S. pp. 502-503, 1880.) 



"The Governor of the Straits of Magellan, Capt. Gomez, gave us two 

 goslings of this species alive ; but when we entered a warmer climate they 

 both died, just as they were getting their feathers." (Feb. 3, 1903.) (M. 

 J. Nicoll, Orn. Jour. Voy. round World, Ibis, Jan. 1904, p. 43.) 



"Among the most distinguished in appearance and carriage of the hand- 

 some exotic species is the Magellanic goose, one of the five or six species 

 of the Antarctic genus Chloephaga, found in Patagonia and the Magellan 

 Islands. One peculiarity of this bird is that the sexes differ in colouring, 

 the male being mostly white, whereas the prevailing colour of the female 

 is a ruddy brown, a fine rich colour set off with some white, grey, intense 

 cinnamon, and beautiful black mottlings. Seen on the wing the flock 

 presents a somewhat singular appearance, as of two distinct species asso- 

 ciating together, as we may see when by chance gulls and rooks, or shel- 

 drakes and black scoters, mix in one flock. 



" This fine bird has long been introduced into this country, and as it 

 breeds freely it promises to become quite common. I can see it any day ; 

 but these exiles, pinioned and imprisoned in parks, are not quite like the 

 Magellanic geese I was intimate with in former years, in Patagonia and 

 in the southern pampas of Buenos Ayres, where they wintered every year 

 in incredible numbers, and were called 'bustards' by the natives. To 

 see them again, as I have seen them, by day and all day long in their 

 thousands, and to listen again by night to their wild cries, I would will- 

 ingly give up, in exchange, all the invitations to dine which I shall 

 receive, all the novels I shall read, all the plays I shall witness, in the 

 next three years ; and some other miserable pleasures might be thrown in. 

 Listening to the birds when, during migration, on a still frosty night, they 

 flew low, following the course of some river, flock succeeding flock all 

 night long ; or heard from a herdsman's hut on the pampas, when thou- 



