372 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



back and scapulars deep brown, margined with pale yel- 

 lowish brown ; breast mingled yellowish brown and white ; 

 abdomen mingled yellow and orange-brown. 



Genus MALACORHYNCHUS, Swainson. 



A very delicate form, of which the single species, confined 

 to Australia, is the only one known ; and in which a beautiful 

 pink- colour, unusual in the plumage of birds, shows itself in 

 the shape of a minute spot on each side of the head. 



Sp. 590. MALACORHYNCHUS MEMBRANACEUS. 

 Pink-eyed Duck. 



Anas memhranacea, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp. p. Ixix. 



fasciata, Shaw, Nat. Misc., pi. 697. 



New Holland Duck, Lath. Gen. Syn., Supp. vol. ii. p. 359. 

 Membranaceous Duck, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. x. p. 331. 

 Rhynchaspis fasciata, Less. Traite d'Orn,, p. 632. 



memhranacea, Steph. Cont. of Shaw's Gen. Zool., vol. xii. p. 124. 



Malacorhynchus membranaceus, Swains. Class, of Birds, vol. ii. p. 366. 



fasciatus, Wagl. 



Wrongi, Aborigines of New South "Wales. 

 Wym-bin, Aborigines of Perth, Western Australia. 

 Pink-eyed Duck, Colonists of Swan River. 



Malacorhynchus membranaceus, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., 

 vol. vi. pi. 13. 



Although this is by no means a common bird in any part 

 of Australia that I have visited, it is very generally distributed 

 over the southern portion of that country, and it also occa- 

 sionally visits Tasmania; its occurrence there, however, is 

 very irregular, the shortness or duration of the intervals 

 being evidently influenced by some peculiarity of the season. 

 Shallow freshwater lagoons seem to be its favourite places of 

 resort ; hence, in New South Wales during the rainy season, 

 when the flats and hollows are temporarily filled with water, 

 giving life to myriads of the lower animals upon which this 



