9 



The plain-headed pair on the right at the back of the picture are birds of the first cross between the Kouen 

 and native wild Grey Duck. An unmistakable feature of these interesting birds is the dark greenish 

 bill inherited from their wild parents. Both as an ornamental and table bird this hybrid is invaluable. 



The crested pair in the front of the group are the progeny of the last-mentioned hybrids, and represent 

 the third and subsequent generations. Of fourteen second-generation broods we have reared during the last 

 six years, no sign of a crest appeared in either sex. In the third generation, according to our experience, the 

 crest first appears. Apart from the interesting fact that birds of the first generation of these hybrids are 

 fertile, the crest is remarkable in illustrating a form of ancient ' head gear ' or ornamentation inherited 

 from some remote ancestor. Anyone who knows anything of the hybridisation of these birds also knows that 

 they are degenerate forms in which certain phases of ornamentation first appear. The ducks are small neat 

 forms, with finely mottled heads and necks. In some specimens the speculum of the wing is much 

 degenerated, being almost obsolete. ... I should state that Mr. Taylor White, of Wimbledon, Hawke's 

 Bay, has been experimenting on similar lines as I am doing, and with similar results. 



On the Maori mode of trapping this Duck, Mr. Elsdon Best has published the following : — 



Ducks were snared in the following manner : — A cord was stretched across a river, stream, or lake arm, so 

 as to be a little above the surface of the water, and to this cord were attached a great number of snares, the 

 loops of which hung just above the water, so that the Ducks when swimming under the line (kaha) might 

 thrust their heads through the loops and thus be caught. During the moulting season, ducks were unable to 

 fly and were hunted with dogs, and even caught by hand. 



In 1892, Mr. E. J. Kingsley, of Nelson, sent me for examination what was to all appearance 

 a hybrid, either between the Grey Duck {Anas superciliosa) and the Mountain Duck (Hymenolas- 

 mus malacorhynchus) or between our domestic Duck and the former. I made the following 

 notes : — 



The head is that of the Grey Duck, although the markings are somewhat indeterminate. The general 

 plumage of the body is a pale slaty-grey, the feathers of the upper parts, however, having pale brown margins. 

 The wing-feathers and scapulars are of lighter colour, being of a uniform French-grey with dark shaft-lines, 

 but without the dark margins. The median wing-coverts are dull velvety-black, changing to grey and broadly 

 tipped with white. There is a narrow speculum down the centre, one of the coverts having an exterior border 

 of metallic-green. The smaller wing-coverts display a conspicuous band of white, forming an upper alar bar. 

 The upper tail-coverts are margined with dusky-brown, and the tail-feathers— but very narrowly — with a clearer 

 brown. The whole of the lower fore-neck and the crop have a chestnut-brown line, each feather, however, 

 being narrowly edged with light-grey, which character is more pronounced on the sides of the body and flanks, 

 where the feathers have their webs freckled and vermiculated with grey. The under tail-coverts are darker, , 

 and have dull chestnut-brown margins. The bill is blackish-browm, the upper mandible with a black nail, and 

 the lower largely marked on its central portion with yellow. 



The slaty ground-colour and the reddish tinge on the breast and under tail-coverts naturally suggest 

 a partial Mountain-Duck parentage ; but the large size of the bird and the character of the bill and legs go to 

 support the other supposition, which is probably the correct one. I am more inclined to this view after reading 

 the description of hybrids furnished by Mr. Taylor White and Mr. W. W. Smith. 



Colonel Cradock (in his book cited on page 65) says : 



No one, I think, can truthfully state that in any country in the world has he met with wild Ducks that 

 did not fear man, or, at all events, did not absolutely dread him after a few of their comrades had been under 

 fire ; and New Zealand, though peculiar in the extraordinary fearlessness of most of its indigenous birds, is 

 no exception when wild Ducks are brought on to the tapis. . . . The commonest Duck in the Colony is 

 the Grey Duck, ordinarily abbreviated into the one word ' Greys.' The Grey Duck answers to the Mallard 

 of Europe, and is the wild duck of New Zealand, and there are certainly 80 per cent, of ' Greys ' amongst the 

 whole of the Duck tribe. He is like a small light-coloured Kouen Duck, and scales under 2 lbs. They are 

 very strong on the wing, and as you shoot them mostly in the cold weather, their plumage is carried more 



Vol. ii.— 2 



