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ANAS CASTANEA 
Daily Movements. No information. 
Gait, Swimming, and Diving. The bird is said to be very fond of perching on 
boulders along rocky coasts (S. A, White, 1914b). 
Flight. The flight has been described as powerful and strong, and according to 
Savidge (in North, 1913) the bird looks much larger on the wing than when ex- 
amined in the hand. This is characteristic, I think, of all Teal. 
The flocks are always small, and S. A. White (1914b) says a dozen is the greatest 
number he has ever seen in any one locality. In only one place have they been re- 
ported as occurring in large numbers — Carter (1910) says he has seen thousands 
on Lake Muir, West Australia. 
Association with other Species. It is not commonly found mixed with the 
Gray Teal, but in Tasmania a few have been seen in flocks of Australian Black Duck 
(Legge, 1905). 
Voice. There is a large osseous bulla on the trachea of the male, which is not 
present in the female (Ramsay, 1878). The confusion caused by A. Newton’s (1871) 
statement that the female also has an enlargement was due to the fact that the 
supposed females turned out later to be males of Anas gibberifrons. 
Food. No analyses of stomach contents have been reported on, so far as I know. 
R. Hall (1909) states that they feed largely on small red beetles that they pick from 
the blades of water-weeds, and that they avoid spiders. 
Mr. Arthur M. Lea has kindly sent me the analysis of a stomach collected at 
Nannum in February. It contained many aquatic larvae of insects, several small 
water-boatmen bugs, a small water-beetle, Berosus australioe, and much coarse 
grit. 
Courtship and Nesting. The display has never been described, and a pair in 
the New York Gardens has shown no sex activities. The breeding season cannot be 
definitely determined from the small number of nests actually found. No doubt it 
extends throughout the entire year, and is as irregular as with other Australian species. 
Carter (1904) took young in down on Northwest Cape on July 21, and North (1913) 
says August and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season in 
southern Australia and Tasmania. On the Murray River it is said to be the earliest 
duck to pair and nest (R. Hall, 1909), but of course it is a very rare duck there and 
it is doubtful if many nests have actually been taken. 
On the Northwest Cape, Carter and Mathews (1920) say that it nests in the 
