On Rare Waterfowl Breeding in Captivity. 137


some external and easily appreciable character. He especially

draws attention to the situation of the nostrils and the extent of

the gape of the mouth, and the scaling and webbing of the

feet ; and he shows how most families of birds can be

satisfactorily separated by the bill and feet. The articles are

illustrated by a large number of very good outline drawings of

the heads and feet of species which are characteristic of the

various families treated of.



RARE WATERFOWL BREEDING IN CAPTIVITY.



An extremely interesting article by Heer F. E. Blaauw,

C.M.Z.S., on the breeding of some of his Waterfowl at Gooilust

during 1903, appears in the current number of the Ibis. No less

than seven rare species of Geese hatched and reared broods

during the year, these consisting of Cereopsis ( Cereopsis novce-

hollandice ), Sandwich Islands ( Neochen sandvicensis ), Magellanic

(Chloephaga magellanica'), Black-banded (C. dispar), 'Ashy-headed

( C. poliocephala ), Ruddy-headed (C. rubidiceps) and Snow ( Chen

hyperborejis). A female Maned Goose (Cheno?ietta jubata) laid two

eggs, which were placed under a common hen which hatched

them, but unfortunately killed both chicks, and a clutch of eggs

laid by a Ross’s Snow-Goose ( Chen rossi ) were destroyed by

vermin. A pair of Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccbiator ) reared a

brood of six. Heer Blaauw gives very interesting notes on the

colour of the young of each species, and the following paragraph

strikes us as particularly interesting :—


“In former years I have repeatedly bred young birds

from a male of the Blue Snow-Goose ( Chen ccerulescens) and a

white female of Chen hyperboreus , when the results of the union

have invariably been Blue Snow-Geese, and not specimens

intermediate in plumage between the two forms. This year a

pair of these Blue Snow-Geese (the result of a mixed union) has

bred, and the result has been a brood of four young, all

recognisable at once as true Blue Snow-Geese.”



