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


first. I found them to be in fairly good health although in bad plumage,

but as it had taken too many years to get my wish of having a flock

of those birds realized, I bought the thirteen of them and had them

sent to Grooilust. Three died after I obtained them, and I parted with

three pairs, so that in the end I had four pairs of healthy birds in all.


Of those four pairs, two pairs nested last spring in the beginning

of June. One female laid nine eggs and the other one six eggs. After

they had sat on them a couple of weeks I took the eggs away, put

the nine eggs under a broody turkey hen, and the six under a

common hen.


After thirty days of incubation, under the geese themselves and

substitutes, six chicks hatched under the turkey hen and five under

the common hen, the other eggs being infertile. One gosling died soon

after hatching. The chicks in down were beautiful things, marked

very intensively black and white as is visible on the accompanying

photographs, and both bills and legs were also black. They were

hatched on 30th June and 4th July. The eggs I may mention as being

dirty white.


When first hatched there is a golden-yellow glow on the down

of their heads which, however, disappears after a week or so, leaving

the head white and black like the rest of the body, and it is a curious

coincidence that the newly-hatched chicks of the Abyssinian Blue-

winged Goose ( Cyanochen cyanopterus), a species which, I am told,

also lives near lakes in the mountains, have the same yellow glow on

their heads during the first days of their lives.


The goslings were very active and strong, and grew very well, so

that at the age of three weeks the black legs began to turn red.

About 30th July, little greyish feathers began to grow on the

shoulders and white ones on the sides. On 13th August the legs

were mostly red, whilst the bills were still black and the birds were

strongly feathering. On 21st August some birds began to show the

red on their bills, and on the 11th October the bills were mostly red,

although not so clear as in adult birds. The legs at this time were

almost entirely red, and the birds had almost attained the size of the

adults and were entirely covered with feathers. This first feather

dress is almost exactly like that of the adults, the only difference



