CAPE BARKEN GOOSE. 
Mr. J. W. Mellor has contributed this account : “ These peculiar geese 
are now getting scarce in Australia : in South Australia and some of the other 
states they have been totally protected and are now breeding slowly. They 
prefer to carry on their breeding on quiet out-of-the-way islets, as they are 
somewhat wary birds and easily disturbed in the breeding-season ; their nest 
is composed of pieces of stick, plants, etc., selected from around, the situation 
being in the lee of some low bush, which acts as shelter from the stormy winds 
which blow in the exposed situations selected as their home. The nest is 
always well lined with soft down plucked from the breast of the sitting bird, 
and when she leaves the nest for feeding, the eggs are well covered with this 
warm material, which keeps their temperature up for a considerable time. 
The clutch is from 4 to 5 in number ; the color is white and the shell has a 
certain amount of gloss on the surface, on account of the finer texture of the 
shell than that of the common barndoor geese. They are early layers, starting 
to mate in April and May, and laying in June : the young are fully fledged 
and away by August. I have seen mobs of old and young birds on Lake Albert, 
South Australia, in October, which have come from the islands off the south 
Australian coast. While on the Royal Australasian Ornithologists’ eighth 
congress expedition in the ‘ S.S. Manawatu ’ to the islands of Bass Strait I 
saw these birds on the various lonely small islands visited where they breed, 
notably on Rhodent Island, off Flinders Island, and on one of the islets of the 
Pascoe Group, where the old nests were seen, and the geese seen flying about 
Dec. 3, 1908. On Storehouse Island, off Babel Island, we saw several Cape 
Barren Geese breeding : one lot had quarter-grown young, with the down still 
on, while yet another brood could all but fly, and when frightened took to the 
sea, and swam out on the ocean to avoid capture ; this was Dec. 4, 1908. 
We also saw them on the Glennies Islands off Wilson’s Promontory, Victoria ; 
the young were barely able to fly on Dec. 7, 1908. The wide dates of fully 
fledged young, I think, varies on account of the birds often laying two clutches 
of eggs in the season, as when an early lot of eggs are taken they will lay 
again. I have kept the birds in semi-captivity for years and find this the case. 
They are extremely pugnacious when breeding, and should one pair come 
in contact with another pair, the old ganders have a set to in good earnest, 
so that they keep to their own little quarters ; in captivity I find that only 
one pair must be kept in an enclosure. The young in down are pretty little 
balls of grey fluff, with several longitudinal lines of black down the back ; their 
legs are of a leaden colour when young and change to the full pinkish-red of 
the old birds at about 12 months. In South Australia the}’ breed sparsely 
on the small islands in Spencer’s Gulf, also in the open ocean side of Eyre’s 
Peninsula on the small rocky islands where they can breed quietly. The 
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