D. Seth-Smith—The Bearing of the Spurwing Goose 363


some three or four years ago. Here they made themselves at home

at once, becoming extremely tame and wandering to considerable

distances. Every afternoon at precisely the same time of day they

would pay a visit to the Head Keeper’s lodge, where they knew they

were sure of some special dainty. In fact there, with almost unlimited

space to range over, they proved attractive and very intelligent birds,

but they made no attempt to breed until this year, when, in June,

the female completely disappeared and it was feared that some

prowling fox had taken her. However, she was eventually found,

half a mile away from the pond on which the pair were wont to reside,

in a thick belt of bushes sitting tightly upon ten eggs. Fearing that

a fox might take her, the Head Keeper spread a trail of creosote

in a wide circle round the nest and in the centre of this she went on

sitting. She hatched all ten eggs and appeared one morning on her

accustomed pond, a half mile trail, with her brood. To reach the

pond she had to cross a paddock in which was a pair of Sarus Cranes

with their chick, and at such times these Cranes are dangerous. The

Cranes attacked, but the plucky goose put up such a good defence

that they could get nowhere near the chicks, and finally she took the

offensive and drove the Cranes right away.


The first evening after hatching the Goose returned to her nest,

another half-mile tramp, with her brood and there they spent the night.


Spurwinged Geese are very distinct from the usual run of Geese

and they remind one somewhat of huge Tree Ducks, while their goslings

are much more like Ducks than Geese. In fact, they are almost

indistinguishable from Mallard ducklings, though, of course, somewhat

larger than these at the same age.


M. Delacour’s description of these Geese in Aviculture (Vol. II)

hardly does them justice ; he calls them “ ugly and clumsily built,

very spiteful, and very susceptible to cold ”. They appear neither

ugly nor clumsily built when seen in the right setting, that is a large

open space, neither do they appear spiteful when given sufficient room,

and as for their delicacy, well, when first imported doubtless they need

care, but Whipsnade is as cold as most places in England and there

they have not suffered in the open for the last four years.


D. Seth-Smith.



