1040 



NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



At the time of the visit of Mr. J. Gabriel and myself to Riverina, 

 duiing the big flood of September, 1894, several Grey Teals' nests were 

 found, in eveiy instance in hollow trees. We were fortunately situated 

 for our work in being the guests of Mrs. Macaulay and her daughters, 

 who lived on the Ooroonong Creek, near Moulamein. Miss Marguerite 

 was used to following her brothers over the marshy meadows Snipe 

 shooting. When she ascertained that I required Teal for critical 

 examination, she suggested that, in order to make sure of our getting 

 the birds, she might be pennitted to take ujj a position at one end of 

 the swamp, while I took the other. The lady clcvoi-ly shot birds on 

 the wing, and retrieved them herself. We had no difficulty in securing 

 three and a-half brace of Teal. 



During a drive through tracts of flooded countiy we discovered two 

 Teals' nests. When I was out with the brothers forcUng a billabong, 

 a bird was observed to flush fiom the hollow of a spouted limb of an 

 overhanging dead tree. Standing upon the seat of the buggy, we could 

 just discern eleven creamy-white eggs within the hollow. Tliey were 

 siurounded by an elastic circle of down. The date was 8th October, 

 1894. It is somewhat remarkable that the down collected from this 

 nest retained its wannth in our collecting basket for two or three hours 

 afterwards. A Teal was obsei-ved to fly from a low hollow tree standing 

 in a swamp. This nest contained nine eggs, fresh. The dead stump 

 standing in its weird surroundings, my companion in the act of taking 

 the eggs, and the buggy, with its fair occupants, waiting in the back- 

 ground, yielded a good picture for the camera, with the title, " Taking 

 a Teal's Nesfc." (See illustration.) Date, 17th October, 1894. 



We had the good fortune to find a nest containing the maximum 

 complement, twelve eggs, which were taken from a dead tree near the 

 centre of a great flooded expanse. Tliis nest Mr. Gabriel and I dis- 

 covered by flushing the bird when rowing our flatty through the timber. 

 Tlicse flooded overflows are rendered dreary by rea-son of the dead rang 

 timber, with its thousands upon thousands of leafles twigs cutting tlie 

 clear blue sky all round. Here and there a smooth-barked living red 

 gum indicates the permanent channel of the stream, and croaking frogs 

 and chirjjing insects are everywhere heard. Another Teal's nest was 

 taken, but several seen could not be reached. A fifth clutch, containing 

 nine eggs, was presented to us bv a drover. 



Teal sometimes feign lameness in order to divert attention from 

 their eggs or young. It is probable that Teal convey their young to 

 the ground in the same manner as Black and other Ducks. Mr. Wm. 

 Batcman, of Echuca, desciibcd to me a curious incident. Ho was in 

 his boat. Duck shooting on Kow Swamp, when he saw nine downy young 

 Teal tumble tail over head about thirty feet from a hollow .spouting 

 limb of a red gum into the water. They were not hiu-t in the least by 

 their fall. They immediately bunched themselves together, so that a 

 hat might have covered the lot. The strangest part of the affair was 

 that the parents were nowhere to be seen ; possibly they had been shot 

 or frightened away by shooting. 



Mr. Leslie Cameron, Grassmere, Riverina, lias kindly sent me this 

 interesting note : " Tlu-ec or four yeai's ago. when tlie flood waters were 



