CHLOEPHAGA EUBIDICEPS 99 



CHLOEPHAGA RUBIDICEPS (Sclater) 



Bernicla inornata, Qray (nee King), Zool. Voy. ''Erebus" and 

 " Terror," Birds, pi. xxiv (nee Genera Birds ; neque King), 1846. 



Chloepliaga rubidiceps, Sclater, Pro. Zool. Soc, pp. 387, 415, 

 pi. clxxii, 1860 ; Abbott, Ibis, p. 158, 1861 ; Oates, Gat. Birds' Eggs Brit. 

 Mus., ii, p. 156, 1902; Salvadori, Gat. Birds Brit. Mies., xxvii, p. 136, 1895. 



Habitat — Tierra del Fuego ; the Falkland Islands, 



(^ , Useless Bay Settlement, 8th Sept. ; eggs, San Sebastian Settlement, 

 28th Oct. 1904. 



Iris — greyish black ; bill — black ; legs and feet — orange. 



Hitherto, the Ruddy -headed Goose has only been recorded 

 from the Falkland Islands — with the exception of a specimen 

 stated by Oustalet to have been sent to France by D'Orbigny 

 from Patagonia in 1831, and with this nothing seems to have 

 been done. 



In the Birds of the "Erebus" and "Terror" Expedition it 

 is figured as B. inornata, from a male and female obtained in 

 the Falkland Islands ; but was only described by Dr. Sclater as 

 lately as 1860. 



It was not met with by Darwin, Cunningham, or the French 

 Mission to Cape Horn. 



This Goose is a summer visitor, arriving at the end of winter 

 and breeding in vast numbers. I first remarked its appearance 

 at the head of Useless Bay early in September. Its advent 

 is a remarkable event in the year. After seeing none, a pair 

 appears mysteriously here and there, and these increase from 

 day to day until there are countless thousands. I found these 

 birds excessively fat at the time of their arrival, where — as I have 

 observed elsewhere — C. dtspar, resident in the island^ is as lean 

 as can be, not only at this season but in spring and at the end 

 of summer. In the lowlands they are in about equal numbers 

 with, or perhaps even more numerous than, G. dispar. 



