1920.] Western Australian Birds. 703 



Queen's Gardens, East Perth, and also in Hyde Park 

 Gardens, North Perth. On one occasion I counted roughly 

 six hundred of: them on a })ool about one hundred yards in 

 diameter. They crowded to the banks to be fed on biscuits 

 etc. by visitors and children, but wonid not actually feed 

 from the hand, though I constantly had odd birds venture 

 within three or four feet of my outstretched hand holding- 

 food ont for them. On the a[)proach of evening the birds 

 all left the Gardens to feed on the shallow mud-flats of the 

 adjacent Swan River, where they again assumed their usual 

 shyness. As soon as the first winter-rains fell (in early 

 June) they all left the Garden pools. 



Virago castanea. 



Green-headed Teal were very scarce at Lake Muir in 

 January 191G, and dithcutt to obtain, owing to the lowness 

 of the water. While I was there a shooting party obtained 

 about six of them on a freshwater swamp adjacent to the 

 lake. One of the party told me that these birds go to 

 this small secluded swamp for shelter in windy weather. 

 I did not see a single individual at Lake Rluir in March 

 1919, perhaps because the water was then fresh and quite 

 drinkable. When T was at Carnarvon in 191 G, Mr. Angelo 

 told me that he had often seen and shot Green-headed 

 Teal in a large and deep mangrove creek some miles 

 north of Carnarvon, but that he had never seen any aioai/ 

 from mangroves. 



Early in August 1916 I camped at a large patch of 

 mangroves south of the North-West Cape, ho[)ing to oljtain 

 some specimens and make observations, as I had often seen 

 these birds there in previous years. However, there was 

 only one pair, and after much trouble I shot one of them, 

 just when it was almost dark, al'ter sundown, at a range of 

 a few yards. It was a female bird just assuming the 

 chestnut-coloured breast, but had no green on its head or 

 neck and was not breeding at the time. A few days 

 afterwards, when I was staying with Mr. A. Campbell, who 

 lives further north, he told me that he frequently saw 



