APPENDIX. 



401 



Mr. Bennett also records finding a nest of this species on 30th 

 July in a slight hollow of a stump standing in the water, 

 containing six eggs enveloped as usual in a mass of down, and 

 another on 12th September, in the disused nest of Gorone australis, 

 on the branches of a tree about twelve or fourteen feet above the 

 water. 



Hab. Derby, N.W.Australia, PortDenison, Wide Bay District, 

 Eichmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, 

 Interior, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, West and South- 

 west Australia. (Eamsay.) 



ERISMATURA AUSTRALIS, Gould. 



Blue-billeol Duck. 



Govld, Handbk. JBds, Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 594, p. 379. 



Several instances of this bird having bred in New South Wales 

 have recently come under my notice; during 1888 I saw four 

 young birds that were obtained near Trangie, and this year (1889) 

 Mr. Bennett in his notes records the finding of a nest on the 2nd 

 of November at Yandembah, New South Wales, while engaged 

 in looking for the nests of the Glossy Ibis. Mr. Bennett writes as 

 follows : — " On a further examination of this large sheet of water 

 I discovered a nest of the Blue-billed Duck, Urismatura australis, 

 containing fragments of egg shells showing that some had already 

 been hatched, and one egg with a live, young one just upon the 

 point of hatching, so it is evident that this rare duck occasionally 

 breeds here. The nest was a rather neatly made cup-shaped 

 structure, composed of rushes, and was placed in a low Polygonvm, 

 bush a few inches above the water. The old female I disturbed 

 from the nest, whilst the male was a few feet away in company 

 with several newly hatched young ones." 



Hah. New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, Wes* 

 and South-west Australia, (Bamsay.) 



