Breeding of Waterfowl at Gooilust. 7 1 



female from the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London. 

 From this pair I have had numerous broods, and, unless I 

 am very much mistaken, all the Ruddy-headed Geese now 

 in Europe have descended from them. The old male, which 

 is now mated to one of his daughters born in 1887 (his original 

 mate having died six years ago), has been in my park 

 for seventeen years, but nevertheless gave me this spring 

 a brood of three young birds, which have done well and 

 are now moulting. 



The chicks of this species are marked with dark grey on a 

 ground of whitish grey, and are the least conspicuously 

 coloured of any of the group. The first plumage of this 

 Goose also resembles that of the adults, except that the 

 ground-colour as well as the markings are less clear and 

 well defined. Thus, for example, the white of the wing is 

 mixed with grey and the glossy green wing-bar is altogether 

 absent. The legs, which at first are black, get their yellow 

 markings when the chick begins to acquire its feathers. 

 The young birds begin to moult at the end of September, 

 generally completing the change before the new year. 



Proceeding to the Maned Goose (Chenonetta jubata) , I must 

 allow that I have not yet had complete success with this 

 bird. A year ago one of my females laid two eggs in April, 

 dropping them about without making any nest. These 

 two eggs were placed under a common hen, and, after 

 twenty-eight days of incubation, were hatched. Unfor- 

 tunately the hen killed both the chicks. They were, so far 

 as I could judge from the mangled bodies, of a nearly 

 uniform dark grey colour. 



My old pair of Snow-Geese {Chen hy perboreus) , which I 

 have had since the year 1888, bred again last spring. They 

 sat on three eggs only, but I believe that the nest had been 

 robbed of part of its contents by a pair of Cranes. It was, 

 as usual, full of down, and was situated under a bush near 

 the edge of the pond. In about four weeks the three eggs 

 were hatched. 



The young of this Goose when in down is grey, darker on 

 the back and lighter on the under side. The head is yellow, 



