WOOD AND WA8TE :^>i» 



Once or twice, searching for Rail's nests, I 

 have fancied I heard Brown Ducks in the 

 tall, wet raupo beds, and these birds may 

 have had youni^- with them. On the otlier 

 hand, on January 1st, and weeks after that 

 date, there v,'ere sixteen Brown Ducks, 

 male and female, in mature phunage on 

 the southern portion of Tutira lake. Of 

 these a couple of pair seemed to be keeping 

 to some extent apart, but the remainder 

 flew together and swam together, as though 

 flocked for the winter. 



Each of these four kinds of duck has its 

 own peculiar haunts and habits. 



The Blue Duck will be found in the 

 deep, cool gorges and rushing, bouldered 

 streams, and nowhere else. The Brown 

 Duck breeds probably near the little blind 

 creeks that percolate rather than flow 

 through the marsh lands. There during the 

 daytime he quietly rests, or if on larger 

 sheets of water, lurks until dusk in deep 

 shadow and almost motionless. The Scaup 

 seems to breed only on the lake's very 

 edge, during the winter months to con- 

 gregate in gi'eat flocks, to lie in deep 



