Breeding of Waterfowl at Gooilust. 69 



The immature dress is very much like that of the adults, 

 but the general tone is more grey -than yellow, and all the 

 black or brown markings are less clearly defined. The 

 curious spiral radges in the neck-feathering are already 

 visible in the young bird. The yellow of the neck is 

 greyish black, and is darker in the young males, so far as 

 my experience goes. 



At the end of July the young birds began to moult, and 

 in about six weeks had acquired the adult plumage, the 

 flight- and tail-feathers being retained, as in other young 

 waterfowl, until the following year. 



Of this particular brood of five, I had the misfortune to 

 lose three when they were only half-grown. A very cold 

 night seems to have been the cause of their death. 



Of the Magellanic Goose (Chloephaga magellanica) 1 

 reared a brood of four this year, two males and two females — 

 being the produce of four eggs. It is worthy of note that in 

 this Goose, as well as the nearly allied C. dispar, there are 

 two co/owr-forms when the chicks are in down. Some of them 

 are dark grey all over, being only slightly lighter on the 

 underside, with black heads and whitish throats, whilst 

 others have distinct dark markings on a nearly white ground 

 and a light head with only a longitudinal dark mark on it. 

 At first (for I had never bred these birds before) 1 thought 

 that the dark chicks were females and the light chicks males. 

 Afterwards, however, I found that the colour of the down had 

 nothing to do with the sex of the birds. The young females 

 get their yellow legs when the feathers begin to appear, and 

 their first plumage resembles that of the old female except 

 that the brown is duller and the black markings are not so 

 well defined and seem thinner and more numerous. The 

 young males differ from the adult male in not having the 

 breast pure white, but striped with narrow blackish lines. 

 Besides, all the markings are weaker and less conspicuous. 



The shining green wing-bar is absent in the young birds 

 of both sexes. At the end of September they begin to 

 moult, and assume the adult dress in a couple of months. 

 The green wing-bar, however, is not generally assumed until 



