THE NEW HOLLAND CEREOPSTS. 321 



west eastward to Bass's Strait. Swan Isles, in Banks's 

 Strait, were so called by Captain Flinders, " because a 

 European who belonged to the Sydney-cove [a vessel 

 wrecked near that locality] had assured him that he 

 had met with vast numbers of breeding swans upon 

 them;" but Mr. Bass subsequently ascertained that 

 these swans were more like geese, and were the same 

 species that he had previously seen upon Preservation 

 Island. He describes them, in the account of his 

 voyage quoted by Colhns, as " either a Brent or a 

 Barnacle Goose, or between the two," with a long 

 slender neck, a short head, a rounded crown, a short 

 thick arched bill, partly covered by a pea-green mem- 

 brane, and dove-coloured plumage set with black spots. 

 Flinders, who accompanied Bass on this occasion, iden- 

 tifies the bird which he afterwards found at Lucky 

 Bay and Goose Island, in the immediate vicinity of 

 Esperance Bay, and which he justly regards as Labil- 

 lardiere's Swan, with that of Swan and Preservation 

 Islands. It was found also in the latter locality by 

 M. Bailly, one of Baudin's officers, who in his relation 

 inserted in Peron's Voyage aux Terres Australes, speaks 

 of the Geese which frequent those islands as forming a 

 distinct species, characterized by their nearly uniform 

 brown colour, varied only by round spots of a deeper 

 colour than the rest and of about a centimetre (rather 

 more than the third part of an inch) in diameter. 

 And lastly, according to the oral information given by 

 Mrs. Lewin to Dr. Latham, the Cereopsis is found " in 

 sufficient plenty in some parts of New Holland, and 

 from its being so about Cape Barren, has obtained the 

 name of Cape Barren Goose." Cape Barren Island, it 

 should be observed, is one of the largest of Furneaux's 

 group in Bass's Strait, of which Preservation Island is 

 also one. With these concurrent testimonies, now for 



BIRDS. \ 



