ANATIDAE I 3 3 



winter ; the note, often syllabled " honk-honk," is at times almost 

 a cackle, whence the flocks or " skeins " are called " gaggles." 

 The nest, placed in herbage or heather, is of grass, moss, twigs, or 

 aquatic plants, and contains five or more whitish eggs. 



Chen hyperboreus, the " Wavy," or Snow Goose, of North-East 

 Asia and jSTorth-West America, with its larger Eastern American 

 race, C nivalis, and C. rossi of Arctic America — which wander 

 south in winter, while the first has occurred in Britain and North 

 Europe — are white, with black primaries, purplish-red bills and 

 feet ; C. rossi having a warty base to tlie maxilla. C. caerulescens, 

 of eastern North America, is grey-brown, with white head, bluish 

 rmnp and wing-coverts. The food is of rushes, insects, and berries. 



Sub-fam. 8. Cereopsinuc. — Ccreopsis iiurae hollandiae, the 

 Cape Barren Goose of South-East Australia and Tasmania, is grey- 

 brown, with large yellow cere, chiefly reddish-orange feet, black 

 toes and beak. More terrestrial than its nearest kin, it lays similar 

 eggs. The very large extinct Cnemiornis, of the superficial deposits 

 of New Zealand, was a close ally, with aborted keel to the sternum 

 and short wings useless for flight. 



Sub-fam. 9. Plectropterinue. — Aex sponsa} the Summer Duck 

 of North America and Cuba, accidental in Jamaica and the 

 Bermudas, has the upper parts mainly glossy green, with purple 

 cheeks, black ueck-patohes, and white stripes on the face and 

 neck ; the breast is chestnut with white spots, the throat and belly 

 are white, the wing-coverts partly blue, the flanks brown, black, 

 and white ; the bill is black, white, yellow, purplish, and scarlet ; 

 the feet are yellow. It has a long occipital crest. The female is 

 grey -brown with metallic gloss, a white throat and eye -space, 

 plumbeous and black bill, and brownish feet. This inland species 

 feeds on insects, seeds, leaves, and acorns, and lays buff eggs in 

 holes in trees. Acx gcdericulata, the Mandarin Duck of East 

 Asia, is somewhat similar, but has a neck-ruff of narrow chestnut 

 feathers streaked with whitish, a chestnut and black " fan " formed 

 by the decurved innermost secondary, a copper, purple, and green 

 crest, and a red-brown bill. The feipale is brown, grey, and white. 



Nettopus pulchellus, of Australia, New Guinea, and the 

 Moluccas, has the upper parts and neck-collar dark green, the 

 head browner, the reniiges and rectrices black with a white 

 wing-bar, the cheeks and lower parts white, the sides marked with 



1 I can hardly agree with Count Salvador! in placing Aex here. 



