354 Transactions. — Zoology. 



tonga Lake has attached itself in the same marked way to one 

 of the domestics, but is shy and distant with every one else. 

 I have remarked elsewhere''' on the devotion of this species to 

 its young, and the devices to which it resorts to draw intruders 

 away from the vicinity of its nest. I have lately met with the 

 following in the columns of a newspaper, and the record is 

 worth preserving : — 



" The following is a touching instance of the affection of 

 birds for their young : Mr. Shalders informs the North Otago 

 Times that, having been requested to obtain some young Para- 

 dise-ducks for the purpose of exchangiug with the Accli- 

 matisation Society of Victoria, he, while travelling with another 

 up-country with a waggon and team, saw on a stream two 

 parent birds and eight or nine young ones. On his essaying 

 to capture some of these, the parent birds, like the Home lap- 

 wings, endeavoured, by feigning lameness, to decoy him from 

 their young ; but he captured three of them, and placed them 

 in a small box on the waggon. They proceeded a distance of 

 six miles and camped for the night, and on risiug early in the 

 morning Mr. Shalders' s first care was to look after the young 

 birds. On leaving the tent, however, he saw not far from the 

 waggon a Paradise duck and drake, and remarked to his mate 

 that he believed the birds had followed them. To ascertain if 

 this were so, he took the little ducklings out and placed them 

 on the ground some short distance from the waggon, and 

 watched. They were almost immediately taken charge of by 

 the drake, who made off with them through the mate-kauri in 

 the direction of the river, rising every few yards in order, 

 apparently, to let his companion see the course he was taking. 

 The informant says he had not the heart to endeavjour to 

 recapture his prize, and he let them go as a tribute to the 

 faithful care of the parent birds." 



Hymenolaemus malacorhynchus, Gmelin. (Blue Duck.) 



I received from Waikanae on Saturday, the 12th Decem- 

 ber, an adult pair of the Mountain-duck, with a bird of the 

 first year, and a fledgeling from another brood. The last- 

 mentioned accidentally hung itself in the wire-netting of its 

 enclosure. The others were very shy at first, but soon adapted 

 themselves to their new life, and took readily to their new 

 diet of cooked potato and rice. When alarmed they uttered 

 a loud whistling cry — especially the young bird ; at other 

 times their note was a low rasping one, like the sound pro- 

 duced by drawing an object quickly against the teeth of a 

 large comb. 



• " Birds of New Zealand," vol. ii., p. 266. 



