EGYPTIAN GOOSE 195 



Bohm (1885), who says that in the Tanganyika region he saw these birds dancing 

 about on the ground and then picking up the insects and small animals which had 

 been scared up in this way. This habit is common also to the Sheldrakes. 



Courtship and Nestixg. The breeding season of this Goose is irregular, long 

 drawn out and widely different in the various parts of Africa. In Egypt it probably 

 nests in very early spring (A. E. Brehrn, 1879), and flappers were taken in May 

 (Shelley, 1872). Farther south, in the Sudan, where the rains set in during July 

 and August, they breed much later, from July to September (von Heuglin, 1873) 

 and sometimes even later (A. Chapman, 1921). In Abyssinia the season seems to 

 be markedly different, extending from late April (Zedlitz, 1910) to mid- July (Blan- 

 ford, 1870), but von Erlanger (1905) reports a much-incubated egg taken in eastern 

 Abyssinia in late October. Schillings (1905) found unfledged young in June in 

 Tanganyika Province (German East Africa), and later found others in August. G. 

 A. Fischer (1879) gives August, September, and October as the breeding season in 

 this part of Africa. In the southern parts of Africa the breeding records cover the 

 months from August to January (Stark and Sclater, 1906; Kirk, 1864; Littledale, 

 1908; Hartert, 1898; B. Alexander, 1900; C. H. T. Whitehead, 1903). No doubt 

 some breed in every month of the year. 



Notes on the courtship of the Egyptian Goose are extremely scanty, but as far 

 back as 1738, Albin mentioned that he could tell the male, "by the cock running 

 to the hen with open wings, clasping or embracing her around with them." Hubbard 

 (1907) noted the male puffing out his breast, stretching wide his long wings and 

 dancing around the female with a singular "gobbling cry." Their actions are no 

 doubt those of the victor and protector rather than those of actual display, and Hein- 

 roth says there is no real display, but the sexes stand side by side, moving their heads 

 against each other and uttering characteristic notes. The male of a pair which I 

 watched in the Amsterdam Zoological Gardens on April 8, 1922, held himself very 

 erect with bill and head pointed straight up, while he continually uttered a short 

 rattling, coughing note, not very loud, as he walked nervously about. The female 

 responded with her loud hoarse note chow-chow-che-chow, etc., etc., which she kept 

 up for long periods. The erect attitude of the male in courtship is characteristic of 

 the Orinoco Goose, as well as of the Antarctic Geese of the genus Chloephaga. Ger- 

 hardt (1904) writing of his observations in the Gardens at Breslau, says that both 

 sexes walk around in a circle, moving their necks downward rhythmically. The 

 actual mating always took place on land, but other observers speak of it as taking 

 place in shallow water (Heinroth, 1911). There is a postlude during which the male 

 lifts his wings high up (Heinroth, 1911). Hybrids with the Sheld-duck, described by 

 the same author, have a very different display, just like that of the Ruddy Sheldrake 

 and the true geese, and unlike that of either parent. 



