AUSTRALIAN WHITE-EYED DUCK 215 



Immature Male : According to Buller, has the chestnut-brown color much lighter, and the feathers of 

 the back margined with pale brown; it has also less gloss on the head, and the brownish white of the 

 under parts is mottled with brown. 



Immature Female: A plain, brown-colored duck almost exactly like the Common Scaup in appear- 

 ance. It lacks all trace of the white face-patches which are nearly always to be seen in the young 

 female Scaup, and it can always be distinguished even in dried skins by the dark bill, banded across 

 the tip with lighter color. 



Young in Down: Not seen. 



Note: A male specimen in the U.S. National Museum collected in Celebes is rather darker and richer 

 in color than the few Australian examples there. It is perhaps only a fresher and less-faded specimen. 

 There are no notes available on "off-season " plumages, but it is doubtful whether there is any pro- 

 nounced eclipse dress. 



DISTRIBUTION 



The Australian White-eye is one of the most common and widely distributed species of the 

 island continent, the range extending also over several of the neighboring archipelagos. Like all 

 Australian ducks it is resident, its migratory movements being local and depending entirely on rain 

 conditions. 



In West Australia it is everywhere a fairly common bird. W. B. Alexander (1916) saw several in 

 January on the south coast near Bremer Bay. In the interior it is not so abundant at Moora (Orton 

 and Sandland, 1913), but many were seen in the Wongan Hills (Milligan, 1904) and it West 

 is a fairly common resident and breeding bird in the vicinity of Perth (W. B. Alexander, Australia 

 1921; H. E. Hill, 1904). It is abundant at Lake Way (North, 1898) and in the Northwest Cape region 

 is said to be the commonest duck, excepting the Slender Teal (Carter, 1904). Still farther north it is 

 very abundant along the Fitzroy River (North, 1898). 



Hartert (1905) has recorded specimens taken near the South Alligator River, North Territory, in 

 November, but Gould (1865) states that it is a very rare bird at Port Essington. In the eastern part 

 of the North Territory it was fairly common on the lagoons along the M'Arthur River North 

 (Barnard, 1914) and was met with in the interior about Alexandra Station in July Territory 

 (Ingram, 1907) and on the Brunnette Downs (Barnard, 1914) as well as farther south in the Harts 

 Mountains about Alice Springs and Owens Spring (North, 1913). 



In western Queensland it is common along the Gulf of Carpentaria and along the Leichhardt River, 

 breeding at Byromine (Macgillivray, 1914). At Richmond, in the interior, it is far from common 

 (Berney, 1907). Castelnau (in North, 1913) has recorded it from the Norman River, ~ . , 



and in the north a few were seen on the swamps along the Watson River (Macgilli- 

 vray, 1918). It is common in the east near Coomooboolaroo (Barnard, in litt.) and on the Herbert 

 River (Broadbent, 1910), and was found breeding in southwest Queensland at Cunnamulla (Robin- 

 son, in North, 1913). 



In New South Wales it is locally common, especially in the western parts. Savidge (in North, 

 1913) found it the commonest duck on the Clarence River and Austin (1907) records great flocks on 

 the Talbragar River during the rains. In the northwest it is common and breeds New South 

 (d'Ombrain, 1921) and at the junction of the Darling and Murray Rivers great flocks Wales 

 were observed (W. B. Alexander, 1918). Smaller numbers have been reported from the Mudgee dis- 

 trict (Cox and Hamilton, 1889), from the Mossgiel district (Bennett, in North, 1913) and from Cob- 

 bora (Austin, ibid.). 



