198 ALOPOCHEN JEGYPTIACUS 



The Greeks regarded Seb as the Nile God, like the eel and the lepidotus, and 

 both Greek and Roman writers mention the bird frequently, for example Herodotus, 

 Aristophanes, Aristotle, and Pliny. Artists commonly made use of it, and it appears 

 on the mosaics of Pompeii (No. 9990, Museum of Naples). 



The old generic name, Chenalopex, means "fox goose" in Greek, which is not to be 

 regarded as derived from any characteristic of the bird itself, but rather from a cor- 

 ruption of the Egyptian name. Thus in the Periclean Age the bird was used as a 

 symbol of rascality, "foxlike" (Keller, 1913). 



They seem to have been greatly admired by Dutch painters of the middle seven- 

 teenth century for their portraits occur over and over again. Willoughby and Ray 

 (1678) saw and described this species among the King's wild-fowl in St. James Park 

 and called it the Gambo Goose. Albin (1738) pictures a specimen which was one of a 

 pair presented to him by Lord Burlington, and Latham speaks of numbers having 

 been imported prior to his time, 1785. Indeed it was "not uncommon" in gentlemen's 

 parks in England when the latter's work was written. 



The species breeds freely in captivity, and was represented in the earliest list of 

 animals in the London Zoological Gardens (1830). They are extremely hardy, ag- 

 gressive and very dangerous to other water-fowl, so that they must usually be kept 

 on ponds by themselves. An example of their ferocity is given by Schoff (Zool. 

 Garten, vol. 8, p. 186, 1867) who tells of a young gosling only two days old, which 

 when liberated on a pond in the Dresden Gardens attacked ten young Mallards 

 fourteen days old, jumped on their backs and picked them until they left the pond. 

 A. E. Brehm (1879) gives a very vivid account of a fight between two males, in 

 which not only bills and wings, but claws also came into play; the scene ending by 

 the victor leaping upon his exhausted antagonist's back and holding his head under 

 water until the victim was drowned. Not only other members of the species, but 

 water-fowl of all sizes, quadrupeds, and even human beings may become the objects 

 of attack for these quarrelsome birds. 



This pugnacity is connected, no doubt, with the mutual attachment of the mated 

 pairs, for all evidence indicates that the birds pair for life, and even in confinement 

 are monogamous. In this respect they resemble the true geese and Sheldrakes. An 

 excellent old account of the behavior of these birds in captivity is to be found in 

 Naumann (1896-1905) who says that they nest on the ground. He calls attention 

 especially to the permanent attachment between the sexes. 



In France, during the middle of the last century, when the Soeiete d'Acclimatation 

 was making great efforts to introduce exotic and possibly useful birds, the present 

 species was cultivated to such an extent that a distinct race was produced, which, 

 although it retained all the original plumage characters, was considerably larger in 

 size. When first systematically bred (1839-43) it nested in early January or even 

 late December, as it does in its native haunts, but gradually the nesting period was 



