78 ANATIN.E. 



In N'ictoria this species used at one time to be common in the neighbourhood of Melbourne, 

 amongst others many fine old adult males being obtained by me in a shallow brackish lagoon 

 between Albert Parle and St. Kilda. When disturbed by shooting (locks would fly across the 

 narrow stretch of sand dunes, and alight far out on the waters of Hobson's Bay. I have also 

 seen Hocks of these birds at the back beach, Williamstown, and in Altona Bay. From this 

 State there are specimens in the Australian Museum collected by the late Mr. George Masters. 



The late Mr. K. H. Bennett, writing from the Mossgiel iJistrict, New South Wales, remarks: — 

 " Anns cdstaiu-a is a very rare visitant, and only on one occasion during my residence in this 

 part of New South Wales have I met with this bird. I then saw a pair, male and female. 

 This Duck was very plentiful in Gippsland, \'ictoria, and I have shot numbers of them there 

 wlien a boy." Writing from Yandembah Station on the 3rd October, 1890, Mr. Bennett 

 retnarked : — " To-day I shot an adult male of Aims (dstiuu-ii, a very rare bird here, having met 

 with it only on two occasions." 



b'rom Copmanhurst, New South Wales, Mr. George Savidge wrote me: — "The Chestnut- 

 breasted Teal (Anns ciisldiuui ) was fairly plentifully dispersed about the large swamp on the Lower 

 Clarence River District ; the open water and ri\er courses do not seem to attract it so much as 

 purely swamp country. It is a powerful llier, and looks much larger on the wing than when 

 examined in one's hand; the flesh is tender and excellent eating." 



Mr. G. A. Keartland writes me as follows from Melbourne, Victoria: — "The Chestnut- 

 breasted Teal {Niition castancnni) is usually found in small flocks or pairs, but are not very 

 numerous anywhere. They prefer fresh water lagoons or rivers. I have seen a few at King's 

 Island, and also at Heidelberg, Victoria. Some time ago I was anxious to ascertain the difference 

 in weight between these birds and the Common Teal (Nettion gibb(i'ifi'ons). The Chestnut- 

 breasted Teal averaged three pounds one ounce per pair, whilst the others only averaged two 

 pounds three ounces. 1 weighed ten pairs of each species. Gould was in error wh^n he 

 descrilied this bird as the Common Teal in its nuptial dress. When once it assumes its gay 

 livery it never changes back to the sombre garb again. The female is about the same weight 

 as the male, but is somewhat darker in colour than the Common Teal." 



From Western Australia Mr. Tom Carter writes me ; — " Niitton castduaiin is not nearly so 

 common in North-western Australia as N . gibberifivns, and appears to be a salt-water Duck, as 

 I have only seen it in mangroves. I have shot a female with the fine glossy-green head and 

 neck' of the adult male, and with the plumage just the same, dissection only proving the sex. 

 In fact I had picked out the bird to skin as being a handsome male. Young in down were seen 

 in the mangro\es near North-west Cape on the 21st July, 1900." 



From notes made by Dr. Lonsdale Holden, while resident at Circular Head on the north- 

 west coast of Tasmania, I have extracted the following: — " On the 9th September, 18S6, I saw 

 about a dozen dral<es of Anns castduen in fine plumage, and two or three ducks of the same 

 species, in a swamp on Circular Head Peninsula, and approached them within fifteen yards. 

 The drakes have lustrous green heads and necks, and a conspicuous white mark on the upper 

 wing-coverts; the ducks are greyish-brown. On the ist November, 1886, I found a Teal's nest 

 with eleven fresh eggs, on a swampy plain beyond Montague ; the nest was in a clump of earth- 

 growing dwarf tea-tree, and surrounded by shallow water; little but bare ground formed the 

 bottom of the nest, liut was thickly lined with black down with white centres. We flushed the 

 bird from it as we rode across the plain. A week later 1 found a nest on the ground between 

 tea-tree boles, containing seven eggs, in a swamp on Circular Head Peninsula. I took the eggs 

 and put them under a hen, and on the 8th December two ducklings were brought to me, but 

 one was accidentally killed and the other died the next day. Two others also which I obtained, 

 much older, died after I had kept them for a few days, feeding them on chopped up worms." 



