F. E. Blaauw—The Breeding of the Black-winged Andean Goose 435


of 1931, I got an offer from a dealer in Hamburg of two pairs [true

pairs, as he said) and when I bought them, I indeed did get the, so

long vainly promised, true pairs.


The females are, as is well known, exactly like the males in plumage,

but are a good deal smaller and have a different voice. The first females

I remember to have seen were those I saw stuffed in the Museum of

Buenos Aires in 1911, and I also saw chicks in down there, in their

white and black livery.


Afterwards, a pair got to the London Zoo, and under the good

care of Mr. Seth-Smith, a chick was born there, which, I believe, was

figured in the Field. I saw wild birds of this species near a mountain

lake in southern Chile in the Maritime Andes between Los Sauces and

Puren in 1911. There was quite a gathering of those geese at the

spot mentioned, and some beautiful Black-faced Ibises (Theristicus

melanops ), and some Cayenne Lapwings enhanced the beauty of the

sight in those splendid surroundings. The geese when flying struck

me at once as being different from the, to me, familiar Magellanic

Geese, as they were much shorter and heavier to look at, although

their flight was strong enough, and when they came nearer it was

easy enough to identify them. The birds I got from Hamburg were

in good health, but very badly feathered ; probably the result of the

long voyage from Bolivia, where they came from. They were extremely

tame and the males had an amusing way of puffing themselves up

whilst the females cackled at their side. After the moult, when the

flight feathers had been renewed, I found that they were very expert

flyers (they were kept in a large covered-up place), and that they

liked to perch on a small brick house that was in the enclosure. They

would walk up to the wall of the house and then fly up almost vertically

to the roof. If I should come near their enclosure whilst they were

sitting on the roof they would always fly down to me, extending their

legs well forward when they landed, only just clear of the wire-netting,

and then the showing-off would begin.


After I had had my birds a few months the dealer, Mr. Fochelmann,

wrote to me to say that he had several more specimens and hoped that

I would also buy those. As I chanced to have to go to Germany about

that time I resolved to go by Hamburg and have a look at the birds



