ORINOCO GOOSE 203 



unfortunately is not often the case. My females always made a nest in a box and 

 usually laid eight or ten eggs, laying every day. The time of incubation was about 

 twenty-eight days. The male has a whistling sound and when courting throws his 

 body backward keeping himself very upright. At the same time he keeps his shoulders 

 (wings) away from his body and shows the wing-speculum and white patch. When 

 he does this he emits a puffing sound, and whistles. The female gives vent to a harsh 

 scream, keeping her head very low. They live very well in confinement but cannot 

 stand frost and have to be taken in during the winter. " When I saw Mr. Blaauw's 

 collection in April, 1922, his stock of these birds was very low, only one or two re- 

 maining. 



In 1904 Heinroth (Journ. f. Ornith., vol. 52, p. 134, 1904) reported that one of his 

 two females laid six eggs in a hollow tree and incubated them assiduously; but none 

 has been reared in the Berlin Gardens. 



In confinement these geese are not hardy, but if kept inside during frosty weather 

 they do well and live many years. The London Gardens, which have always kept a 

 considerable number, in 1883 possessed a specimen which had been purchased in 

 1865. Unless the birds are given a good supply of animal food (worms and meat 

 chopped fine) their eggs prove to be infertile. The young birds are very active and 

 easy to rear, feeding chiefly on duck-weed, bread-crumbs and ant larvae (B\aa,uw,fide 

 Hubbard, 1907). The adult birds are of a pugnacious temperament, and when ap- 

 proached will raise "their bodies nearly erect, swelling out their breasts and flapping 

 their wings against the legs of the intruder. They sometimes bend themselves back- 

 ward to such an extent that they appear as if they would fall on their backs " 

 (Derby, Cat. Knowsley Menagerie, 1846). According to Mr. Blaauw the bill, as 

 well as the wings, is used in attacking. 



