48 ' Correspondence. [ist^"july 



Correspondence. ' 



THE CAPE BARREN GOOSE. 



To the Editors of " TJie Emu'' 



Sirs, — Surely Mr. Armstrong is rather hasty in his remark 

 {Eniii, 1st April, p. 182) : — " I entirely disagree with the 

 opinion expressed by your correspondent, Mr. J. D. Maclaine, 

 who, writing from Clarke Island in 1906, stated that the Cape 

 Barren Goose was holding its own. He quoted someone as 

 having seen a flock of 200 on Chalky. I don't think there are 

 200 Geese in the whole group." 



To begin with, an ounce of positive evidence is worth a ton 

 of the negative sort. Mr. Maclaine is an old resident of the 

 islands, and his evidence is entitled to the greatest respect. Mr. 

 Armstrong only spent 10 days altogether on the islands, which 

 is utterly insufficient for such a sweeping generalization. He 

 says that he expected to see lots of Geese " as it was the breeding 

 season." And his visit took place in the middle of November ! 

 Surely Mr. Armstrong knows that this Goose commences to 

 breed in July, and that August and September are its closing 

 months for breeding .' The Geese are, in November, scattering 

 for their summer migration to the mainland. 



There is another bit of decisive evidence to show that Mr. 

 Maclaine is correct. I think I am correct in assuming that all 

 of the Geese which visit the western plains of Victoria come from 

 the islands that Mr. Armstrong visited. Well, only last summer 

 two flocks of these Geese were counted while feeding — within a 

 day's ride of Mr. Armstrong's residence — and there were 136 in 

 one flock and 98 in the other. In addition, there were hundreds 

 of Geese in smaller flocks in the same neighbourhood. I know 

 of about twenty haunts of the Geese on our plains, where there 

 are at least 1,000 Geese every year. This summer they were as 

 abundant as ever, so that they can fairly be described as 

 " holding their own." 



At the same time I am at one with Mr. Armstrong in his 

 desire to see them properly protected, as they are one of our 

 finest and most interesting birds. — Yours, &c., 



Noorat, 13/4/08. FRANK S. SMITH. 



To the Editors of " The Emu." 



Dear Sirs, — When in Launceston recently I saw a copy of 

 The Ei/m* in which there was an account of the visit of Messrs. 

 Armstrong and Atkinson to the islands in Bass Strait. In their 

 account they seem to be greatly disappointed at the rarity of 

 the Cape Barren Geese, and question very much my statement 



* Vol. vii., p. 182. 



