True Geese 



1 77 



The Cape Barren or Cereopsis Goose (Cereopsis novce-hollandice) is another 

 of the somewhat aberrant members of this family, well entitled to stand as the 

 only living representative of a subfamily (Cereopsin<z) . It is nearly three feet 

 in total length, of massive build, with stout legs and feet, and a short, thick bill, 

 nearly the whole of which is covered with a cere of a lemon-yellow color. The 

 plumage is brownish gray, becoming whitish on the crown of the head, and the 

 feathers of the back and wing-coverts with a brownish black spot near the tips. 

 The bill, except when it is covered with the cere, is black and the legs reddish 

 orange. Gould states that this Goose was found to be very abundant by the 

 early voyagers, and so tame that it could be knocked down with sticks or even 

 taken in the hand ; but as it is strictly a vegetable feeder, its flesh proved such 

 excellent eating that it was soon almost exterminated, and sixty years ago it 

 had become so scarce as to be rarely seen. It seems likely that it will ultimately 

 share the fate of its near relative, the extinct Cnemiornis. The voice of the 

 bird is described as a disagreeable deep, hoarse clanging, and the nest as a well- 

 built affair lined with feathers and down. The eggs are creamy white in color 

 and about three and one fourth by two and one fourth inches. It takes readily 

 to confinement, but is very pugnacious, inflicting severe wounds with its power- 

 ful, sharp bill. 



Cnemiornis. In New Zealand there existed, apparently within a few 

 hundred years, a large, flightless Goose (Cnemiornis calcitrant) that is nearest 

 related to the Cereopsis Goose, although it was much larger and had a shorter, 

 more massive skull, and a rounded, short beak. The wings were short and 

 wholly useless for flight, and the breast -bone was without a keel. Its bones were 

 found associated with those of the Moa, and it is presumed that the same agencies 

 contributed to its extermination as those which brought about the disappearance 

 of these birds. 



True Geese. The so-called true Geese are aggregated into a subfamily 

 {Anserin(B\ and number nine or ten genera and thirty or more species, but the 

 limits of the group are not very satisfactorily fixed, and the lines separating certain 

 of the genera are more or less arbitrary. They differ from the Swans in having 

 a neck always shorter than the body, although it is longer than in most Ducks, 

 and from most of the Ducks by having the front of the tarsus covered with small 

 hexagonal instead of narrow scales, while they are distinguished from the last 

 subfamily by the absence of a cere. They are birds of moderate size, with rather 

 long legs, and although they swim well are also adapted for a terrestrial life, 

 and being essentially vegetable feeders, are often seen away from water. They are 

 almost cosmopolitan in distribution, but are most abundant in the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere, rearing their young in many cases well within the Arctic Circle, and rang- 

 ing south over wide areas in winter. They are all strong on the wing. 



Coscoroba. The first, and in some respects least typical, member of the 

 group is the Coscoroba (Coscoroba Candida), a large bird of southern South 

 America. By some writers it is placed with the Swans, but, on the whole, it 

 seems best located here, since in its structure, habits, "language," and flight it 

 is decidedly more Goose-like. It is pure white, with the tips of the quills black, 



