CHLOEPHAGA DISPAR 97 



often within a few yards of tlie track, at the mercy of man and 

 beast. In such exposed places, it is extraordinary how they 

 escape notice. 



Particularly interesting are the breeding habits of this Goose. 

 There is no attempt at a nest until one or two eggs have 

 been laid, in some depression on the bare ground. The bird 

 then commences to deposit her down, adding more and more as 

 she proceeds with the laying. The eggs number usually six, 

 occasionally — according to the experience of others — as many as 

 eight. As incubation proceeds, so does the conduct of the parent 

 vary. If one happens to make straight for her nest, or about 

 twenty yards wide of it, before she has her complement of eggs, 

 she usually rises thirty or forty yards away. If the full number 

 are there, she is not as ready to move, and she becomes less and 

 less inclined to do so the longer she sits ; until at last, when the 

 eggs are near hatching, she will not stir until almost trodden on. 

 I have ridden round a Goose under these conditions within eight 

 or ten feet of her, have pulled up and sat looking at her and she 

 stonily at me, and she has never stirred until I have dismounted 

 to put her off. When it comes to sitting as close as this, they 

 flatten out to the utmost, neck, head, and bill to the ground. 

 For concealing the eggs and keeping them warm in the absence 

 of the bird, there is extraordinary provision in the down of 

 the nest, which, with the action of the bird rising from it, is 

 drawn upwards until the sides meet and fall over, completely 

 covering the eggs. All there is to mark the spot is a pad of 

 down, partially masked by grass, sunk below the natural lie of 

 the ground. 



It is only within recent years that Geese have attained such 

 numbers in Tierra del Fuego. It is due to the covert being 

 eaten down by sheep, and consequently the growth of short 

 grass. It is also due in some measure to the extinction of the 

 Onas, and the decrease in foxes. Against this, on the 

 other hand, must be set the sheepmen, Avho collect the eggs for 

 winter consumption, and kill many young birds for eating before 



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