128 



4. Note on the Upland Goose. 

 By Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A., F.L.S. etc. 



The new " Upland Goose " recently received by the Society from 

 the Falkland Islands, is certainly the true Magellanic Goose (Chloe- 

 phaga magellanica), Gmelin's name magellanica being founded on 

 Buffon's PL Enl. 1006 — a sufficiently recognizable representation of 

 what seems to be the female of this species. See also Darwin's 

 Zool. of the Beagle, Birds, p. 134, where " Upland Goose " is stated 

 to be the name applied to this bird at the Falklands. 



The bird, which has for several years, I believe, bred in the So- 

 ciety's Gardens, and is commonly called the " Magellanic Goose," 

 is "The Ashy-headed Goose" (Chloephaga poliocephald) of the 

 British Museum Catalogue of Gallinae, Grallse and Anseres, published 

 in 1844. 



This species is well figured in Gray and Mitchell's Genera of Birds 

 (pi. 165), under the name Bernicla inornata. But it seems doubt- 

 ful whether this is really the true Anas inornatus of King (Proc. 

 Comm. Zool. Soc. i. p. 15). 



The adults of both sexes of this Goose, which are now in the So- 

 ciety's Gardens, are coloured as nearly as possible alike, which is 

 rather curious, if, as appears to be the case, in the nearly allied C. 

 magellanica the male and female are quite different. 



There are two other fine Geese which inhabit the southern extremity 

 of the S. American continent — namely, B. antarctica (Gm.) and B. 

 melanoptera, Eyton. Specimens of all these four species are in the 

 British Museum. 



5. Description of a New Genus of Gorgoniad^e. By Dr. 

 John Edward Gray, F.B.S.,V.P.Z.&Ent.Soc.,F.L.S. etc. 



(Radiata, PI. VII.) 



ACANTHOGORGIA. 



Coral branchy ; branches free, cylindrical, slender, both of them 

 almost entirely composed of transparent spicula ; cells elegantly bell- 

 shaped, contracted at the bottom, and less so rather below the aper- 

 ture, spinulose, with eight equidistant lines of two or three series of 

 diverging short spines ; the mouth of the cell surrounded with nume- 

 rous diverging, very slender, transparent, elongate spines, nearly as 

 long as the cell. Axis horny black, more slender and brown near 

 the tips. 



Acanthogorgia hirsuta, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1851, Radiata, pi. 3. 

 fig. 2. 



Coral branched ; branches nearly on the same plane, separate. 

 Hah. Unknown. British Museum. 



This genus bears some relation to Primnoa, but the cell is armed 

 externally with rows of short, thin, and its mouth with a series of 



