These birds differ very much, both as to the localities they select for their nesting-places, and the season at which they breed. Many species, as spring approaches, begin to assemble in remote morasses and unfrequented swamps, and here upon small islands or hillocks they make a rude kind of nest, composed of water-plants, and lined with down. Some, on the contrary, select the forked branches and hollow trunks of trees, or occasionally convert to their own use the eyries of other birds. Their brood consists of from six to twelve well-shaped, thick-shelled eggs, always of a dull and uniform tint. The usual duration of incubation is about a month. The newly-hatched Goslings are covered with a soft warm coat of greyish down, and soon begin, under the guidance of their parents, to provide for themselves. They run and swim actively on the very day of their birth, and their growth is so rapid, that in the course of a couple of months they are completely fledged. They, however, remain together as a family for a very long period. All Geese live principally upon vegetable diet; by means of the hard margins of their beak they are able to crop grass, and also to collect grain, and a variety of vegetables. They likewise procure various small animals and aquatic plants from the bottom of the water. THE SPUR-WINGED GOOSE. The SPUR-WINGED GOOSE (_Plectropterus Gambensis_) is characterised by its large size, slender body, long neck, strong beak, furnished with an excrescence at its base, its unfeathered face, and long bare legs. The feet are provided with long toes, connected by large webs; in the long, pointed wings the upper secondaries are much developed, and the wrist-joint armed with a powerful spur; the tail is of moderate length and wedge-shaped, and the plumage, composed of large feathers, is smooth and compact. In this bird the cheeks, chin, throat, centre of breast, under side, and the short feathers on the upper wing-covers are all white; the rest of the plumage is blackish green. The eyes are reddish brown, the beak and the excrescence at its base blueish red; the feet dull light red. This species is three feet long and five feet and a half broad; the tail measures seven inches. The female is considerably smaller than her mate, but resembles him in the coloration of her feathers; the young are brown on the upper parts of the body, with black wings, a greyish brown neck, and white throat; the rest of their plumage is light grey. The habitat of the Spur-winged Goose extends over the whole of Central and South Africa, where it occupies the borders of streams or rain tanks, in small parties, and seldom wanders to any distance from its usual haunts. During the months of March and July it retires to secluded and marshy localities in order to moult, as at those periods it is unable to fly. At the commencement of the rainy season the flocks separate in pairs, and seek their breeding-places. The large nest, which is formed of rushes,