322 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



the first time brought together, we think that there 

 can be no question either of the identity of the species 

 found at the different localities which we have enu- 

 merated, and so accurately described by the several 

 writers whom we have quoted, or of its being the true 

 Cereopsis. 



M. Temminck states that we have as yet no positive 

 information with regard to the manners, habits, and 

 mode of feeding of the Cereopsis ; but this assertion 

 falls to the ground now that we have ascertained that 

 the bird has been noticed by so many travellers. It is 

 true that the limited opportunities that have occurred 

 of observing it in a state of nature, have precluded the 

 possibility of obtaining a complete history of its habits 

 and mode of life ; but the accounts furnished by various 

 writers lead directly to the inference that it resembles 

 the wild Geese of the northern hemisphere as closely in 

 these particulars as in general conformation. We can- 

 not state with certainty whether it is equally migratory ; 

 but Captain Flinders, who found it at one period of the 

 year so abundant on Goose Island as fully to justify 

 the appellation, adds that it was by no means so nume- 

 rous at a different season, and this fact necessarily 

 implies at least a partial change of locality. 



In its manners it appears that it is by no means so 

 shy as our northern Geese, a circumstance which pro- 

 bably depends on the little disturbance that it has 

 hitherto met with in its native haunts. Labillardiere 

 tells us that many of those first seen by him suffered 

 themselves to be taken with the hand, but the rest 

 becoming apprized of their danger speedily took to 

 flight. Considerable numbers were taken by the crew 

 of Captain Flinders's vessel, both at Lucky Bay and 

 Goose Island, by knocking them down with sticks, 

 and some of them were secured alive. According to 



