86 



ANATIN.E 



it seldom Hies \ery hi^'li a ^reat numlier are shot each year. I have known a t1ock of them to 

 rty round and round a lagoon until they were all shot. They do not breed here, nor have I ever 

 seen their nests, but have observed a great many young birds on the swamps near the Macquarie 

 River, and they are experts at diving even when very young." 



While resident at Vandembah Station, Lachlan District, New South Wales, the late Mr. 

 K. 11. Bennett wrote: — " On the 30th July, 1889, I found a nest of Malaioflivnchns mcmhyanaccus, 

 containing six eggs. They were placed in a slight hollow in the top of a stump standing in 

 water, and were completely enveloped in down plucked from the breast of the parent liird. I 

 should not have observed it had 1 not seen the Duck fly off. On the 12th September, iSSg, an 

 instance of the Pink-eared Duck taking possession of the disused nest of a Crow, in a tree some 

 twelve or fourteen feet above the surface of the water, came under my observation. This species 

 of Duck is the only one that completely envelopes its eggs in down, but often they are not when 

 placed in the hollow trunk- of a tree. This habit of covering the eggs with down is to protect 



NKST Ol' PlNK-KAKKIi Ml'l.- (iN lUSUSKIl NKST OF '1 H K STRA W-NKCK KI) IP.IS. 



them from the Crows. No matter how exposed the nest of the I'ink-eared IHick may be, I 

 notice that the Crows do not molest it, for they seem to have an instinctive dread of the down. 

 This in all probability arises from the tenacious manner in which the down would cling to their 

 heads and bills. Some little time ago, by way of experiment to see if Mdlacorhyucliiis mcmhranaccus 

 would appropriate them, I placed two nests in Polvi^onum bushes and one in the fork of a tree 

 two feet above the water. I found that one in a Polyqniuim bush, and the one in the fork, had 

 been taken possession of by this little Duck. On the 17th September I noticed that some scores 

 of deserted nests of the Straw-necked Ibis, in a Polygonttui swamp, had in se\eral instances been 

 taken possession of by the Pink-eared Duck, one of whom, with the Plucks eggs and their 

 envelope of down, I brought away. On the 2nd November I visited a heronry on a neighbouring 

 station, in the hopes of getting some e^rgs of the Glossy Ibis. When there on the 22nd October 

 I took a set of egt:s from a Coot's ( FiiUca aiistralis) nest, but found it had since been taken 

 possession of by Malacorhyuchus mcmhranaccus, and four eggs had been deposited in the usual 

 manner in a mass of down. Numbers of nests had been taken possession of by these little 

 Ducks ; in fact every nest large enough that had been abandoned by its former owner, whether 

 near the surface of the water or high up on the trees, was utilized, each containing its pink- 

 eared usurper." 



