THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
cheeks and ears brown ; under-surface white with dusky tinge on breast, bend of 
winglet white ; outside of thighs brown. 
Nest. “ Somewhat flat, constructed of a good layer of grass, etc., lined inside plentifully 
with down, and usually situated on the ground amongst saltbush or tussock grass, 
but occasionally placed a few feet from the ground on thick scrub. Dimensions 
over all, about 18 inches ; inside, 9 to 10 inches across by 3 inches deep ” (Campbell). 
Eggs. “ Clutch, four to six ; elliptical in form, sometimes rather pointed at either end ; ^ 
texture of shell coarse ; surface, a trifle limy but glossy ; colour, a very thin outer 
creamy-white coating, on being scratched or otherwise removed reveals a white 
shell. Dimensions in inches : 2.88-3.03 X 2.11-2.16 ” (Campbell). 
Length of incubation. 35 days (Sclater). 
Bresding-season. June to September (MacLaine). 
It is one of the strange anomalies present in the history of the Australian 
Avifauna that we cannot trace the investigator who brought the first specimen 
of this typically Australian bird back to England. For when Latham 
described it from a specimen in the British Museum he gave no account of 
its introduction into that Institution, and I have not yet succeeded in tracing 
the discoverer. It was not described until 1801, when Latham {Gen. Synops. 
Birds Suppl., p. 325, pi. cxxxviii.*) proposed for it a new genus Cereopsis, and 
would not give it a corresponding vernacular name combined with goose, but 
called it the New Holland Cereopsis. Flinders, in the Introduction to his 
Voyage Terra Australis, published in 1814, shows that Bass found it before 
1801, but whether Bass preserved any is very doubtful, as the following 
extracts suggest :• — 
“ p. cxix. It should be remembered that Mr. Bass sailed with only six 
weeks’ provisions, but with the assistance of occasional supplies of petrels, 
of seals’ flesh and a few geese and black swans.” This relates to a voyage 
undertaken in 1798. On p. cxxxv.. Flinders writing of himself the same year 
(1798), gives us the following : “Of the birds which frequent Furneaux’s 
Islands, the most valuable are the goose and black swan ; but this last is rarely 
seen here, even in the freshwater pools, and except to breed, seems never to 
go on shore. The goose approaches nearest to the description of the species 
called bernacle ; it feeds upon grass, and seldom takes to the water. I found 
this bird in considerable numbers on the smaller isles, but principally upon 
Preservation Island ; its usual weight was from seven to ten pounds, and it 
formed our best repasts, but had become shy.” 
Two or three other notes appear regarding this bird in Bass Straits, but 
on p. 83 Flinders wrote concerning Mondrain Island (which he called Goose 
Island), South-West Australia, in January, 1802 : “ Geese and ducks were 
found here (at Lucky Bay), and not being very shy, some of them were kflled 
by the shore parties. The goose vas also found upon the islands, and is the 
46 
