THE



Avicultural Magazine


THE JOURNAL OF THE

AVICULTURAL SOCIETY



Fourth Series.—V ©L X.—- No. 9.—- All rights reserved. SEPTEMBER, 1932



NOTES ON SOUTH AMERICAN GEESE, SHELD-

DUCKS, AND THEIR ALLIES


By J. Delacour


For the past two or three years, I have had the good fortune to

Beep at Cleres all the species of Sheld-ducks, South American Geese,

and other closely allied birds, with the exception of the Antarctic

Goose (Chloephaga hybrida), a sea-dwelling bird, feeding on seaweeds,

which so far has proved impossible to keep in confinement beyond

a few weeks or months.


They are all, to my mind, extremely attractive, most of them

possessing beautiful plumage and fine shape. Practically all species

are hardy and more or less inclined to breed in parks or paddocks.


In his first volume of the Check-list of Birds of the World, Mr. J. L.

Peters, of Boston, rightly puts the South American Geese [Chloephaga),

its close relation, the Abyssinian Blue-winged Goose (Cyanochen), and

the Australian Maned Goose (Chenonetta), close to the Brent (Branta)

and Hawaian Goose [Nesochen), but, curiously enough, he places the

Tree-ducks ( Dendrocygna ) between them and the Orinoco and Egyptian

Geese, and again Sarkidiornis (Oomb-ducks), Cairina (Muscovy),

Asarcornis, and Coscoroba, between the latter and the Sheld-ducks

in the middle of which one is surprised to find the Australian Freckled

Duck (Stictonetta).


I am not going to discuss classification in this magazine, but for

good reasons I believe that the Tree-ducks, on one side, the Comb,



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