AUSTRALIAN DUCK 
107 
It was commonly stated by Australians that this duck could outfly any of the 
birds of prey, but Goudie (1899) quotes a letter from his brother in which the latter 
recounts an instance where a hawk (species unknown) struek one down. They 
usually fly in small parties up to twenty or thirty, and do not flock together like 
Tree Ducks and some other Australian species (Berney, 1907). Large eongregations 
are, however, occasionally found, and in the Ulmarra Swamps (New South Wales) 
they have been described as rising with a sound like the distant roar of thunder 
(Savidge, in North, 1913). 
Association with other Species. Occasionally the Black Duck is seen in 
company with other species, notably the Gray Teal {Anas gibberifrons) and the 
White-eyed Duek {Nyroca australis), according to Keartland (North, 1898). On 
the coasts they have also been observed resting on the sand-bars with gulls and 
cormorants (Buller, 1888). 
Voice. Specimens which I have kept and bred for many years always seemed 
to me extremely quiet. Their notes, so far as I recall, are exactly like those of the 
Mallard. 
Food. These birds are strictly surface-feeders, and their diet consists of a great 
variety of aquatic plants and animals, according to locality. Mellor (in Mathews, 
1914-15) says they live on seeds of grass or aquatic plants, also the leaves of various 
plants, and they are very fond of “doek seed.” In New Zealand they seem to be 
especially fond of green beetles and the stingless gnats (nahonaho), whieh “swarm 
in eountless myriads over all the waters in the lake district”; and in the gullets have 
been found also the seeds of Triglochin triandrum and of various species of Lemna 
(Buller, 1888). In the Murray River district (Australia) both the adults and the 
young like to flsh about the willows and pussy-tail weeds, in search of shrimps and 
little “yabbies”; they seem to adopt a mass method in “bristling” the shrimps, just 
as the pelicans do with the beach Ashes (R. Hall, 1909). Buller (1905) mentions 
their feeding on the spawn of eels with which food their crops were distended. Writ- 
ing of New South Wales, Mr. Austin (in North, 1913) speaks of their frequenting the 
wheat paddoeks at harvesting time. He thinks wheat their prineipal food when they 
can get it and says nearly all the Black Ducks he shot in March had wheat in them, 
“some of them great quantities.” Hutton and Drummond (1905) say that these 
ducks frequent the stubble-flelds in New Zealand also, and are especially partial to 
pea stubbles. 
Courtship and Nesting. The breeding season extends throughout the entire 
year, and in Australia as elsewhere is very irregular. In New South Wales the Black 
