NATATORES. 373 



Duck feeds, its presence may at all times be looked for, while 

 on the other hand it is seldom to be met with during seasons 

 of drought. As it has never yet been seen out of Australia, or 

 even on the northern shores of that country, we may reasonably 

 suppose that toward the interior it finds situations suited to 

 its existence, and where it doubtless breeds ; but respecting 

 this portion of its economy no particulars whatever have yet 

 been ascertained. No one of the tribe that I have observed 

 in a state of nature presents a more elegant or graceful 

 appearance than this little Duck, which is generally seen in 

 small companies of from six to twenty in number, swimming 

 over the placid lagoons, and betraying so little fear and 

 shyness on the approach of man, as to present a singular 

 contrast in this respect to the other members of the family. 

 Its flight is very powerful and swift. 



The sexes are so perfectly similar in plumage as not to be 

 certainly distinguished ; but the male is generally the larger. 



Sides of the face and chin white ; crown greyish brown, 

 becoming paler on the forehead ; space round the eye, and a 

 line from either eye uniting at the occiput and passing down 

 the back of the neck brownish black ; immediately beneath 

 this line and behind the dark patch surrounding the eye an 

 oblong mark of rose-pink; back and wings brown, very 

 minutely freckled with black; rump dark brown; upper 

 tail-coverts buffy white, with a broad stripe of dark brown 

 across the tip of each ; tail dark brown, shghtly tipped with 

 white ; sides of the head and neck, back of the neck, and all 

 the under surface brownish white, crossed by numerous dark 

 brown fasciae, which are narrow on the sides of the head and 

 neck, broad and distinct on the back of the neck, the breast, 

 and flanks, and nearly obliterated on the centre of the abdo- 

 men; under tail-coverts deep buff; irides dark reddish brown ; 

 bill varies from greenish grey to bluish olive ; tip of the lower 

 mandible white ; tarsi and toes emerald-green in some speci- 

 mens and yellow-brown in others ; webs dark brown. 



