CHESTNUT-BREASTED TEAL 
259 
scrub and herbage around the mangrove swamps. A. J. Campbell (1901) states that 
it usually nests in hollow trees, but oceasionally on the ground in grass or other 
herbage in the vicinity of water. Two nests described by North (1913) taken on the 
northwest coast of Tasmania, were situated on the ground between “earth-growing 
dwarf tea-trees,” near the water. There is usually a plentiful supply of down, which 
is dark, each particle being whitish in the center with light-colored tips. A. J. 
Campbell (1901) thinks this down slightly darker than that of the Gray Teal. 
The clutches vary from seven to thirteen, the average being nine or ten. In color 
the eggs are of a rich cream, measuring from 49-53 by 36.8-38.6 mm. The incuba- 
tion period is not known, but it is probably not far from twenty-three days. 
We do not know what becomes of the male during and after incubation, or whether 
he regularly assumes an eclipse plumage. I am inclined to think that a full eclipse 
is not assumed in the wild bird, although there are indications of it in captivity 
under northern climatic conditions. 
Status. An idea of the rarity of this species may be obtained from the account 
of the distribution. Mr. Edwin Ashby of Blackwood, South Australia, who has 
kindly written me in detail about the water-fowl, refers to a Mr. Mann who in all his 
life spent on the Murray River had only taken it once or twice. Mr. Ashby himself 
had shot it once, and seen a few others in the same district. In April, 1920, he heard 
of a dozen for sale in a shop at Hobart, but he was imable to verify the information 
given him. 
Mr. Belchambers writes me that they are now almost (?) gone from the lower 
Murray, and at Minnie Downs Mr. L. Reese (in Hit) says he has never seen it. 
There seems to be some reason to suppose that in earlier days it was more plentiful in 
Victoria (North, 1913), but older accounts of the two species are so confused that 
we can get little idea of the actual numbers of this bird. It most certainly does not 
represent more than one per cent of the combined population of the two species of 
Teal in Australia. Most of the recent notes of its occurrences in the principal 
Australian bird journal. The Emu, speak of the bird as occasional, but in several 
localities such as Wangaratta district of Victoria, around Sydney, and at Peel Isle, 
Queensland, it is reported as frequent. 
Enemies. Probably the same as those mentioned under the Australian Black 
Duck (Anas superciliosa). 
Damage. None. 
Food Value. “The flesh is tender and excellent eating” (Savidge, in North, 
1913). 
