376 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



attached to the science of ornithology, and well known for his 

 valuable * Monograph of the Anatidse/ 



The true habitat of the species appears to be the north- 

 west coast of Australia, where, as Captain Stokes informs 

 me, "it is one of the commonest birds of the country. 

 When on the wing it makes a peculiar whistling sound that 

 can be heard at a great distance, and which changes as it 

 alights into a sort of chatter. It perches on trees in a very 

 clumsy manner, swinging and pitching to and fro. We 

 subsequently often found it on the rivers of the north coast, 

 but not within some miles of their mouths, or near their 

 upper waters, from which it would appear that it inhabits 

 certain reaches of the river only ; we never found it in the 

 swamps. The furthest south it was afterwards met with was 

 on the Albert River, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, in lat. 18° S., 

 which gives it a range of six and a half degrees of latitude 

 over the northern part of the continent. Its nest never came 

 under our notice, consequently we are not aware either of the 

 size or colour of the eggs ; neither did we see any young 

 birds during the period of our observation, ranging from 

 July to November/' 



Mr. White, of Adelaide, in a letter to me, says, " I found a 

 nest of this species in a log ; I am not sure of the number of 

 eggs it lays, but the natives say about eight or ten, mostly in 

 the sand-hills, at Cooper's Creek." 



To this I may add another note supplied by the late 

 Mr. Elsey : — " The Whistling Duck is very common, and was 

 frequently shot on lagoons in the interior, but is very wary on 

 the river. Large V-shaped flights passed over our camp 

 during March, from S.E, to N.W., in which direction the 

 bird appears to have a favourite resort." 



Crown of the head and back of the neck dark sandy brown ; 

 sides of the head and neck and the breast fawn-colour ; throat 

 and fore part of the neck brownish white; all the upper 

 surface greyish olive-brown ; rump and tail brownish black. 



