102 



A winter visitant in the British isles, particularly during hard weather ; its true habitation, 

 however, is within the arctic circle. In Iceland it also occasionally breeds. 



Lives well and is prolific on large pieces of water in a semi-domesticated state, sitting six 

 weeks, and laying from four to six eggs of a greenish colour. 



The trachea in this species perforates the keel of the sternum deeply in a vertical direction. 



SARKIDIORNIS REGIUS. 



Sar. — Supra niger-aeneus, subtus albus : mas. caruncula magna culmine rostri. 



BLACK-BACKED GOOSE. 



Goose with the upper part brassy-black ; below white ; the male with a large caruncle at the 

 base of the bill. 



IN. 



Male : Length 30 Tarsi 2f 



Bill 2| Middle toe 3| 



Bill black, with a large caruncle on the culmen ; head and neck white, spotted with 

 metallic green ; under parts white, and wings purplish black, glossed in some lights with brassy, 

 a band of black extending from the back to the posterior part of the thighs ; wings with a knob ; 

 lower part of the back white ; tail coverts black. 



Fem. : Length 27 inches Bill 2 inches 



Bill without the caruncle, colouring similar, but with the white more or less tinged with 

 brown, and without the band of black behind the thighs ; bill and legs in both black. 



Anas regia Chnel. Si/st. Nat. 1 . 508. 



Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. 817. 



Moll. Hist, du Chili, jf. 212. 



Carina Steph. in the Zoo), vol. 12, 82. 



Anas melanotus Chnel. Syet. A at. 1 . 503. 



Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. 839. 



L' Oie bronzee d' Coromandel B"ff- Hist. Nat. dee Ota. pi. 937. 



Black-backed Goose Lath. Gen. Syn. 6. 149. 



Lc cravant royal Veil. En. Method. Orn. vol. 1 . 126. 



U Oie bronzee Buff. Ois. 1 15. 



Found in Cayenne and most parts of India ; is also included in the list of birds of the Deccan, 

 by Col. Sykes, who also says that seeds of water grasses, and the remarkable cpiadrangular hard 

 seeds met with in the stomach of Pterocles exustus, were also found in the stomach of this bird. 

 Col. Sykes found the digastric muscle of the remarkable thickness of 1 1 -5th inch. 



