WOOD-DUCK OR MANED GOOSE. 
the young up in her bill and flies with it to the ground when the young are 
hatched so as to prevent it from being hurt in the fall from the nest to the 
earth. Such is not the case as far as my observations are concerned, and I 
have kept the birds in semi-captivity for years, and have been successful in 
rearing them and watching their actions while breeding. I always found that 
the young ‘ got out ’ when the nest was slanting sufficiently inside, and also 
when it was wooden, even if the walls of the nest were perpendicular, the 
young being able to stick their little claws into the wood, and scramble out, 
the fall to the ground doing no damage to such little light balls of soft down, 
of no comparative weight at all. But to test the matter w^ell I substituted 
a smooth tin for the nesting-place on one occasion, and in another case a well- 
glazed drain-pipe, putting these up to act as a hollow limb, and in both cases 
the young ones died in the nest after being hatched out successfully : had 
there been anything reliable in the theory of the birds taking them like a cat, 
they could have done so just as easily in these cases as in other nests, so that 
I think that I have proved conclusively that the theory is like many others 
that one often hears, merely origination from some old bushman’s suppositions. 
Like other geese, the gander does not sit, the goose doing the whole of the 
incubation. Their call is a harsh little cracking noise uttered in the throat, 
the head being put erect, and the bill being thrown out : the goose has 
a note resembling the note ‘ cuck-cuck-cuck ’ repeated quickly and often, 
especially when running about her mate and ‘ talking ’ to him.” 
Mr. T. P. Austin (North, Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat, no. 1, Vol. IV., p. 64, 
1913) states : “ The Maned Goose {Chenonetta juhata) is usually plentiful 
throughout the district, especially after the breeding-season is finished, when 
they congregate in large flocks and give good shooting to the sportsmen. They, 
however, take more shooting than any of the ducks, not that they are a faster 
bird on the wing, but because they are so much more difficult to kill. To have 
good results in shooting them one requires No. 2 shot, whereas f dr other duck 
shooting I prbfer No. 4 and 6 shot. Its call-note is rather remarkably, being 
loud and clear, and can be heard a long way off, especially when flyingl They 
do not call out conspicuously when flying in flocks, but just one bird at a time, 
and at intervals of about ten seconds ; sometimes they fly silently, especially 
in open country. When flying low through timber, one is at least calling out, 
and from watching my pet ones I noticed it was always the female which did 
so ; the males are very silent. Although they are mostly found near water, 
seldom in it, more often upon a log or on a nice green patch of grass, and 
yet again upon the bank of a dam, where there is nothing growing. WTien 
disturbed they usually fly round a few times, then settle either in dead trees or 
in water ; if the latter, they give a few low cackling grunts and then swim for 
VOL. IV. 
