NEW ZEALAND SCAUP 247 



Eggs have been found as late as the 17th of March or even the last week in March 

 (Buller). The British Museum (E. W. Oates, 1902) has eggs taken on January 3 and 

 October IS. There is probably no sharply defined nesting period, at least in the 

 northern part of its range. Potts (1870) found their nests under huge "Maori- 

 heads'" (Carex virgata) or well concealed by large snow-grass tussocks, a few feet 

 from the water where there was a rent or crack in the ground. The eggs are five to 

 seven or even more in number, rather large in comparison with the size of the bird 

 and of a rich dark cream color. They measure 2.5 by 1.6 inches (64 by 40.5 mm.). 

 Although the eggs are bedded in down, as in other ducks, Travers noticed a rather 

 interesting point of behavior in a pair of ducks whose nest he found. He took three 

 of the eggs away and the remaining four hatched out in due course. The old birds 

 were remarkably tame, allowing him to approach within a few yards of them, then 

 hustling off the nest and returning to it again as soon as he had withdrawn himself. 

 He remarked this curious fact, that dining incubation, the duck was accustomed on 

 leaving the nest to conceal the eggs with a covering of duck-weed taken dripping 

 wet from the lake. He claims to have seen this on several occasions, and found that 

 the eggs hatched in spite of these wet applications. 



Judging by the sad reduction in the numbers of almost all the indigenous birds of 

 New Zealand it was fair to assume that this species had shared a similar fate. But 

 such is not the case. On the Papaitonga Lake, owing to rigid protection, it had be- 

 come very numerous again by 1905 (Buller, 1905), but as early as 1870, Potts re- 

 ported it as fast disappearing in the hiM country. Now comes a much more reassur- 

 ing bit of news from Mr. J. S. Myers (1923) who says that no fear of the diminution 

 of this duck need be entertained. Its preference for large open sheets of water makes 

 it difficult to get at except during the nesting season. The almost invariable choice 

 of a nest-site on the water's edge, usually in Phormium tenax (flax) clumps makes it, 

 however, more vulnerable at this time than for instance the Gray Duck {Anas 

 superciliosa) . Since reading this, I have talked with Mr. Myers, who tells me that 

 the status of this duck is perfectly satisfactory. 



It has never been exported alive to Europe or America and Buller says he has 

 never heard of any attempt to "domesticate" it. 



