many of the birds were compelled to seek food and shelter elsewhere. At the present time [1896] a 

 remarkably-coloured form inhabits the lower lake ; the head, breast, back, and tail pale white, other parts 

 normally coloured. The bird is extremely timid and watchful, and readily takes wing at the slightest 

 disturbance. It is well known to ornithologists that albinoes and white varieties, and other conspicuously- 

 aberrant forms, are more wary than typically-coloured birds. They appear instinctively to know that their 

 peculiar and striking colours render them more conspicuous to their enemies. Albinism unquestionably 

 causes greater timidity and watchfulness in many species of birds so affected. . . . We have three dozen 

 Grey Ducks pinioned that were reared in the Domain during the last three seasons, which are perfectly tame. 

 They follow visitors along the walks for food, and while being fed, several will lie on the walks and permit 

 themselves to be stroked with the hand on the back. Like the Paradise Duck, they are undoubtedly 

 easily tameable. ... In July the wild flock becomes more restless and spends more time on the water. 

 The males chase each other and fight and dive vigorously. By the middle of August they have generally 

 all paired and disappeared to the swamps and river-banks of the plains, to nest for the season. In the nesting 

 season of 1894-95 the pinioned Grey Ducks in the Domain reared fourteen broods, averaging six in a brood. 

 The young are timid and wary for some time, but soon become quiet, and come skipping rapidly over 

 the water when called to be fed. 



Mr. William Marriner informs me that on the Wairoa River, at the commencement of 

 the shooting season, the Grey Duck is very fat and of excellent flavour, from feeding on the 

 spawn of eels — tiny little crawling things that infest the mud-banks of the river in countless 

 millions. On opening the birds at this season he has found their crops distended with this 

 food alone, and there is every evidence that it is very nutritious. 



The Grey Duck commences breeding on the Papaitonga Lake about the end of September,, 

 and the breeding season lasts till after Christmas. My son believes that this species brings 

 out two broods in the season : he counted one brood of eleven young ones. 



I have already recorded some remarkable eccentricities in the breeding of this species ; and I 

 find the following in one of my note-books : At one end of the little island of Motutaiko,. 

 in Taupo Lake, on a pohutukawa tree overhanging the water, and at an elevation of twelve feet 

 from the surface, a pair of these Ducks have for several successive seasons re-formed their rude 

 nest and brought forth their young. 



Captain Mair writes to me, that in September, 1895, he visited Cook's Eock (Te Pataopare- 

 tawhinu) in Mercury Bay. He found it difficult to land owing to the tremendous surge that was 

 dashing against it at every point. At length, making a spring from the bow of the whale-boat, he 

 landed on his hands and knees on the sharp, jagged rocks, and climbed up the rock which stands 

 up some thirty-six to forty feet out of the sea, with a few stunted pohutukawa trees growing here 

 and there. It has diminished considerably in size since Cook's time, and this remnant cannot 

 long resist the erosion of wave and weather. He continues : " Near the top of the rock, on the 

 seaward side, is a sort of hollow, evidently artificial. Judge of my surprise at finding a common 

 Grey Duck nesting there, with seventeen eggs. I almost put my hand on her before she 

 took wing, making for a small lagoon near Mahunganui Point on the mainland, about a quarter of 

 a mile off, on the north-west side of Mercury Bay harbour. Barring Hawks and predatory 

 sea-birds, the wily Duck must have felt as safe there as did the astute warrior of old who defied 

 Cook from the top of his secure retreat." 



Mr. Taylor White, of Wimbledon, Hawke's Bay, who has taken much active interest in 

 the subject and conducted experiments for twenty years, writes me that he has a number of 

 " fertile hybrid Ducks," the result of crossing Anas superciliosa with the common Anas boscas of 

 Europe. His remarks upon them are interesting : " They follow two shades of colour, a dark 

 and a lighter shade, each of which has its own peculiar markings. I have not succeeded in 

 establishing the shining-green wing-bar of Anas superciliosa, but in the struggle between the blue 

 and green, these colours have become grey or have almost disappeared, leaving the upper coverts 



