1032 NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



I resolved to watch the tree for a time, and concealed myself 

 imder a fallen log. After waiting for about an horn-, the two bu-ds 

 returned and alighted on a tree close by. They sat quietly surveying 

 the suiToundiugs for a considerable time. Then one of them (the female, 

 I believe) flew to the hollow limb and disappeared into it. She came 

 out afterwards, di'agging a little Duckling, covered in yellow down and 

 streaked with a dark coloiu'. The old bird had seized the youngster 

 either by the tip of its head or the nape of the neck, holding it with the 

 extreme tip of her bill, aaid in this fasliion came tumbling and fluttering 

 down toi witliin a few inches of the gi-ound, when she dropped the chick, 

 and darted away as i had seen her do before. In about five minutes 

 she came back and repeated the performance. I thus saw her car-iy down 

 six chicks, and then both birds disappeared. I went and searched the 

 ferns and heath at the' foot of the tree, but could not find any of the 

 little ones. I again concealed myself, and after waiting a long time was 

 rewarded by seeing the old bird alight on a bare cattle-track, some fifty 

 yards from the tree. She uttered a few croaks, and in an instant her brood 

 of eight or nine little ones were round her ; she started off, waddling along 

 the track in the direction of the coast, which lay about a mile and 

 a half below, and the nearest lagoon or water-mai-shes were not less 

 than one or two niUes off, though the smToundiug hills were of a wet 

 and Ixiggy nature. In this pai-t of the State (Sovith Gippsland) the 

 Mountam Duck is seldom seen on the inland swamps, confining itself to 

 the bays and coast marshes, and they go a. gieat distance inland to 

 find suitable trees to nest in. I have often seen them away back in the 

 hazel country of Leougatlia., where they build in the tall hoUow spouts 

 of the black-butt gum." 



Mr. Wm. Bateman, of Echuca, a good field observer, writing to me, 

 states that in August, 1893, he foimd a nest in a hollow box tree on Uie 

 plains. His attention was firet directed to the spot by seeing a 

 Mountain Duck fly round, pitch on a spout, and descend into the tree. 

 His brother immediately placed his hat over the hole to prevent the 

 bii'd from escaping. This precaution was not needed, because the bii-d 

 remained quietly on her nest, which was on the gi-ound, the tree being 

 hollow tO' its base. The bird was so tame tliat she suffered the tree 

 to be chopped and wedged open, and hei-self to be taken by hand off her 

 charge of ten eggs without a struggle. 



The eggs in my collection arc from an luifinished or deserted clutch, 

 taken by my friend Mr. Robert Waljxile, fioni a liollow tree near Wood- 

 side, South Gippsland, October, 1887. 



The Mountain Dutk is an early breeder, usually laying during July, 

 August, or September. 



Young in down ai-e marked on tJie head, along the back and across 

 the wings, with dai'k grey tending to black, the rest of tlie upper sur- 

 face and underneatli parts being whitish. 



