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ANAS SUPERCILIOSA 
southeast of the Austral group, where Mr. Beck took a number of specimens in April, 1921, and 
in February, 1922. 
GENERAL HABITS 
Haunts. The Australian Duck may be called the Mallard of the South Pacific, and 
resembles its northern relative very closely in all its habits and mode of life. It 
frequents “swamps, lagoons, scrub-lined rivers, creeks and waterholes, also estua- 
rine areas, bays and inlets, especially those covered at the sides with dwarf bushes ” 
(North, 1913). On many of the smaller islands, and also in New Zealand, the species 
is more commonly found on the coasts; its movements are probably governed by the 
rainfall and it is numerous in the interior only when the country has been inundated. 
It is found in very diverse kinds of country: on coral islands, on the crater lakes 
of Java (Koningsberger, 1915) and in one case at an elevation of 12,000 feet on 
Lombok (Hartert, 1896a). 
Wariness. MTiere constantly persecuted, as is the case in the settled parts of 
Australia, the Black Duck is exceedingly shy and wary and quite as well able to take 
care of itself as are its near relatives. In less frequented regions the birds are 
naturally much tamer. One writer (Travers, 1872) considered them less shy than 
the New Zealand Sheldrake {Casarca variegata). But they respond readily to protec- 
tion, and in the garden-ponds in and about Perth, Australia, they have become so 
tame that they allow themselves to be fed by children though they will not take 
food from the hand. In the evening these same birds repair to near-by mud-flats 
where they become as shy as ever (Carter and Mathews, 1920). Mathews (1914-15) 
quotes a note from Carter concerning their habits in southwestern Australia. In a 
tank two hundred yards from the house the birds became so tame that they would 
come to the stables and stockyards to pick up corn among the horses and cattle. 
At milking time they actually fed underneath the cows, within fiv’e yards of where 
a man was milking. W. W. Smith (1897) speaks of certain pinioned birds on a 
domain in New Zealand that would not only follow visitors for food but would lie 
still and allow themselves to be stroked while being fed. 
Daily Movements. The Australian Duck is crepuscular in its habits, and evi- 
dently becomes entirely nocturnal in settled districts. 
Gait, Swimming, Diving, Flight. There is nothing characteristic about the 
posture of this bird, either on the water or on the land. At a small distance, only an 
expert can distinguish it from our North American Black Duck. On account of its 
tree-breeding habits it necessarily perches more frequently than the Mallard. It is 
not known to dive except when wounded. But the young dive as freely as those of all 
surface-feeding ducks. 
