1036 



NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



returned seven or eight times; each, time the youug brood increased by 

 one. Owing to the distance between Mr. Bateman and this interesting 

 family, he did not actually see the young brought in the biU of the 

 mother, but from circumstantial evidence he entertained no doubt that 

 such was a iaat. Mr. Bateman said the speed at which the bird 

 arrived, not to mention her dodging movements, while passing between 

 the trees, was such that no duckling could possibly have retained hold 

 on her back. 



Mr. George Warner (Echuca) recollects many years ago — about the 

 end of the " sixties " — seeing a Black Duck fly from the fork of a tree, 

 carrying a young one, gi'asping it in its bill across the chest and back, 

 and deposit in the water of a swamp near. Mr. Warner and another 

 person, who accompanied him, remained quiet, and were rewarded by 

 seeing the performance repeated six or seven times. When the obser- 

 vers showed themselves the old Du.ck sounded a waaning note, which 

 caused the brood, young as it was, to instantly swim to covert, while 

 the old bird flew around in a soUcitous manner. 



It would appear that the Ducks instinctively know that if water is 

 below the nesting trees, they need not be careful about canyiug the 

 young down, but may simply throw them out. Captain F. C. Hansen, 

 master for many years of tlie inland river steamers, and a great lover 

 of birds, who was accidentally killed while attending to the loading of 

 the " Maggie," at the Echuca. Wharf, on the 9th of July, 1897, gave me 

 a very gi-aphic account how he saw young Black Ducks taken out of 

 a tree. Captain Hansen and his wife were sitting in a boat on the 

 back waters of the Darling River, and chanced to see a Duck thi-owing her 

 youug from a heiglit of ten or fifteen feet into the water, where the 

 Drake was keeping the little ones together. When the mother dragged 

 a duckling from the hole, she did so emerging tail first, and, balancing 

 herself at the entrance, she jerked her head sideways, throwing the 

 yoimgster, as the captain said, " clean overboard." 



Refening to Black Ducks laying in the stick-made nests of other 

 birds, I have a note from Mr. Tom Musgrove, who, on the Murray 

 Plains, near Whai-parilla, fomid tlu-ee clutches of Ducks' eggs in the 

 old nest of Ravens. One instance in particular he remembLis, in the 

 season 1893, when he counted no fewer than foui-teen eggs, a " record " 

 clutch, in a Raven's nest. A correspondent in " The Australasian " 

 stated that about the beginning of September, 1893, he flushed a Black 

 Dvick from the large covered-in nest of the Babbler ( Pumat(irhinux), 

 which was situated in a she-oak (Caauarina ), about nine miles away 

 from water. Climbing to the nest he found it contained nine fresh 

 eggs. Some Ducks liave the habit of concealing their eggs before 

 leaving the nest. Mr. G. H. Morton noticed on more than one accasion 

 that a Black Duck had covered its clutch with eucalypt leaves. 



Tlio breeding season for the Black Duck in the more southern part of 

 Australia is usually from August to December, sometimes as early as 

 June, as the following note from Mr. R. J. Dalton, Paroo district, New 

 South Wales, proves. Writuig in June, 1894, lie says: "Quantities of 

 Ducks eggs arc now on tile Cuttaburra, which is flooded." On the 

 other hand, it is not an uncommon event to find Ducks' eggs at 



