Order ANSEKIFORMES.] 



[Family ANATIM3. 



DENDROCYGNA EYTONI. 



(WHISTLING DUCK.) 



Dendrocygna eytoni (Gould), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 268. 



This Duck is a very rare visitant to New Zealand, but several examples are recorded.* It is 

 pretty well distributed throughout Australia, but sparingly in the southern portions of the 

 continent. Mr. North writes t : " It is exclusively a fresh- water Duck, and is generally met with 

 in the shallow water near the margins of swamps and rivers, except during the breeding season, 

 when it resorts to well-grassed country some distance from water. . . . For an opportunity of 

 examining and describing the eggs of Eyton's Tree Duck, I am indebted to an ardent sportsman 

 and oologist, who found these birds breeding near that famous resort of wild fowl, the Macquarie 

 Marshes. While shooting at Buckiinguy on the 23rd September, 1893, in the long cane grass, 

 about one-third of a mile from a small branch of the Macquarie Eiver, he flushed one of these 

 birds, which he quickly fired at, and it fell. As he moved forward to pick it up, he almost 

 stepped on the nest, which was built at the side of a tussock of cane grass. It was a slight 

 hollow in the soil, lined only with short pieces of cane grass, and contained nine fresh eggs. 

 Evidently the Ducks had just begun to lay, for although twelve of them were obtained, only one 

 more nest was found that day, which was similarly constructed and had two fresh eggs in it. 

 Later on in the same locality another nest was found containing seven fresh eggs. From these 

 nests the Ducks had made runs or tracks through the long grass to the water's edge. All of the 

 eggs when found were immaculate, and entirely free from the usual feet marks of the female or 

 stain of any kind. Two average eggs from the nest of nine are oval in form, tapering somewhat 

 sharply towards the smaller end, and are comparatively small for the size of the bird. In colour 

 they are milk-white (which readily distinguishes them from the eggs of any other member of the 

 family inhabiting Australia) with an almost imperceptible tinge of cream ; smooth in texture, and 

 having a slight satiny lustre. The shell is thick and exceedingly hard, and the finder of the 

 nests compared it to flint when he was engaged in drilling the eggs. Length, (a) 1*92 by 1'36 in.; 

 (6), 1*88 by 1*36 in. When held in the hands and the shells are rubbed together, the sound pro- 

 duced is the same as if they were made of porcelain." 



Mr. W. W. Smith writes (' Trans. N.Z. Inst.,' xxix., p. 255) :— 



Three individuals — two males and one female — of this rare and beautiful Duck have inhabited the lakes in 

 the Ashburton Domain for three successive winters. During the earlier part of last winter [1895], before the 

 lakes became frozen, they fed freely with the Grey and other Ducks on oats and wheat scattered along the 

 water's edge. We fed the whole flock regularly every morning after daybreak, all coming freely to feed, after 

 being hailed with a whistle. Owing to the mildness of the present winter, and the greater abundance of food 

 obtainable everywhere, these birds are not so tame as they were last year. They are powerful flyers, while 

 the peculiar shrill whistling sound they produce, when flying, distinguishes their flight from that of 

 all other Ducks. These birds have hitherto left the Domain in August of each year, and returned the 

 following April. 



* See ' Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii., p. 268. 



t 'Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W.,' 1897, p. 60. 



Vol. ii.— 1 



