41 



PEOTECTION OF THE CAPE BAEREN GOOSE. 

 By Col. W. V. Legge, E. A. 



There is another bird for the protection of which I would 

 suggest steps be taken by this Society. It is the Cape 

 Barren Goose {Cereopsis Nbvce Sollandice), a bird of very 

 limited distribution, which is only found to inhabit the 

 Bass Straits Islands, and according to Gould, the adjacent 

 shores of Victoria. I make the suggestion purely in the 

 interests of science, and I am therefore aware that it will be all 

 the more difficult to carry out the matter. This goose is one 

 of the very interesting monotypic generic forms which exist 

 among the Anatidce in Australia, the others being the Semi- 

 palmated goose, Anseranas Melanoleucos, the pink-eyed duck, 

 Malacorjpynchus Memhranaceus, the musk duck, Biziura Lobata, 

 and the freckled duck, Stictonetta Ncevosa. There is but one 

 species to each of these remarkable genera (all forms peculiar 

 to the Australian region) and it would be a thousand pities to 

 see any of these birds become extinct. In Gould's day he 

 found that the Cape Barren Goose must become extinct owing 

 to its tame disposition, terrestial mode of life, feeding on the 

 lands near the shore to a great extent. So inert is it described 

 to be that numbers can be knocked down with sticks. The 

 probability is that in the present day its numbers are much 

 fewer than 40 years ago, and it is therefore not an exaggerated 

 view of the case to say, that there is danger of this species 

 being shortly relegated to the category of the Dodo and the 

 Great Auk, a contingency that would be viewed with deep 

 regret by the ornithologists of the whole world. The Cape 

 Barren Goose, it is true, can be easily domesticated, and it 

 breeds in confinement, though apparently not continuously 

 out of its native country. It formed part of a collection given 

 by King "William in 1830 to the London Zoological Society, and 

 from 1835 to 1860 it bred 20 times, but after that until 1880 no 

 instance of its breeding occurred. I think, the best course to 

 pursue would be to shorten the open season for it by three 

 months and to alter the close season according to observations 

 to be made in the Straits Islands at an early date, to the time 

 best suited to its breeding. 



I suggest the latter course, because, if it is desired to 

 preserve our wild fowl to the best advantage, it will be 

 necessary to alter the "open" season to suit the breeding 

 habits of the various species better than it does at present. This 



