74 



C3-erL-a.S .iii>.2Sr^i^S, Linn. 



Anas superciliosa. 



BLACK DUCK. 



Anas snpi'rcilio.'<a, Gmel., Syst. Nat, Tom. I., p. o37 (1788); Gould, lids. Austr., fol. Vol. YII., 

 pi. 9 (1848); i<L, Handlik. Bds. Austr., Vol, II., p. 3G3 (18G5) ; Salvad,, Cat. Eds. Brit. 

 Mus., Vol. XXVII., p. 206 (1895;; Sliarpp, Hand 1. Bds., Vol. I., p. 216 n899). 



Aliui/r M.^i.K. — (ri'iiiral cii/onr ahov itmt bduiv hroii'n, sUg)il!y 'larki r an (he upper pard, and 

 haviwj all tlie fralhers maryiued with fulvous or huJfy-ivhUe ; loiugs bruirn ; speculum (/lossy (jreen, 

 bordered aitteriorily irifh the black li}>s of the i/reater viiKj-coverts, and posteriorly luilh another 

 black band <it the lips of the secondaries ; ramp and n.pper tnil-cocerts hlackisli-broivn ivitli jjaler bron-n 

 edges; tail-feathers brmvn narron'^y edged loith bnff or fulvous-white ; head blackish-brown; super- 

 ciliary stripe, a broad, hand from the base of the upper mandible, passing belojv the eye, the chest and 

 throat pale buff: from the gape, extending on to the ear-coverts, a mottled band of blackisli-bro'wn ; 

 sides of the neck bu(fy-?i:hife mottled inith brown ; niider u-i ay coverts and a.villiaries pure u-hite : bill 

 slaty-green, li<ihler at the tip of the under mandible ; legs and feet yelloirish-hroum, the webs blackish ; 

 iris brown.. Tot<d length in the flesh '23 inches, iving 10, tail Jf, bill '2-'25, tarsus 1'7J. 



Adult fkmalk. — Similar in pln.mage to l/ie male. 



Distvihidioii. — Nortli-western Australia, Northern Territory of South .\ustralia, Queensland, 

 New South Wales, \'ictoria, South Australia, Central Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, 

 Islands of Bass Strait. 

 TSr^ NUOUBTEDLV the present species is the most widely known of any of the family 



V ' Anatid.e inhabiting Australia and Tasmania. Its flesh is excellent, and no Duck is 



more sought after for the table or for the splendid sport it affords in the field. The Black Duck, 

 as it is popularly called in Australia — the general colour of its plumage, however, being brown — 

 is found all over the continent, likewise Tasmania, New Zealand, Fiji, New Guinea and Timor. 

 It fre()uents swamps, lagoons, scrub-lined rivers, creeks and waterholes, also estuarine areas, 

 bays and inlets, especially those more or less covered at the sides with dwarf bushes. In 

 New South Wales it is especially numerous after a heavy rainfall, when all the low lying 

 country is Hooded. During the unusually heavy floods on the Lachlan and Darling Rivers, in 

 April and May, iSgo, when in the latter district a large tract of country was submerged in the 

 neighbourhood of Bourke, this Duck appeared in countless numbers, and after the water had 

 partially subsided was found breeding in every suitable nesting-place. In the neighbourhood of 

 Sydney it is sparingly distributed, principally about George River, Port Hacking and Narrabeen 

 Lagoon. Occasionally it is obtained in the Botany Swamps, and I have seen it in the dams 

 in the Centennial Park. One season I saw an adult with a brood of young in an ornamental 

 pond in the Botanic Gardens, Sydney. 



Duck shooting, both as a means of profit to some and for the pleasure it afforded to sportsmen 

 and others, was at one time carried on to a larger extent in Victoria than in any other State. 

 Since, however, the prohibition of the use of swivel and punt guns, many men abandoned duck- 

 shooting as a means of obtaining a living. The draining, too, of the low-lying lands between 

 Melbourne, Albert Park and Hobson Bay, and West Melbourne and Yarraville, although a 

 vast improvement, has entirely spoilt the chance of obtaining a day's duck-shooting near the 

 city. In some localities the l:!lack Duck' is excessively shy and wary, and can only be approached 

 under cover, but where they are not often disturbed it is possible to wade, if in shallow water, 

 within easy shooting distance ere they seek flight. Often, too, when on the wing, the whole 



