THE BLACK DUCK. 73 



bird in the colony. A pair of good black duck will 

 weigh about 5 Ibs., and average now 7s. in the market. 



The duck season here commences in the end of January, 

 when the old birds bring their young down to the creeks 

 (I have shot flappers, in some seasons, early in January), 

 and should end with September, when the swamps be- 

 gin to dry up, and the birds pair off and retire to their 

 breeding haunts. After they have bred, they keep about 

 the creeks and water-holes in small flocks or families, 

 till the rain fills the large swamps, when they seem to 

 congregate and frequent the open places on the swamps 

 and plains, where there is shallow water and good feeding- 

 ground. There is little good to be done with a shoulder- 

 gun out here, in the large swamps by day during the 

 winter. The black duck lays from six to eight eggs on 

 the ground, appears to breed much in heather, and I 

 have taken the nest in an open moor far away from any 

 water. 



There is no better sport than- flapper-shooting here, 

 and there is no country in the world by nature better 

 adapted for it. The creeks in the summer (and in the 

 winter the ducks are all out on the open swamps and 

 large lagoons) are a succession of water-holes, walled in 

 by a thick hedge of tea-tree or reeds ten to fifteen 

 feet high. This screen appears impenetrable, and little 

 use would it be for any one to attempt to force his way 

 through it ; but the old hand soon finds a cattle-track, 

 which he well knows leads to water, and, creeping cau- 

 tiously down it, with his retriever at his heels, he suddenly 



