MOUNTAIN DUCK 
125 
MOUNTAIN DUCK 
Casarca tadornoides 
We may know Mountain Ducks in flight by the 
conspicuous white patch of the wing coverts which 
gives the birds almost a pied appearance. In summer 
and autumn the favourite feeding-grounds are the 
salt-lagoons and marshes which lie just within the 
sand-hummocks fringing the coast ; the Connewarre 
Lakes are never without their flocks of Mountain 
Duck at these seasons. In the months of June the 
birds pair, and then go farther inland, spreading 
wide over the plains wherever there are gum-trees of a 
sufficient height to afford suitable nest-hollows and 
not too far away from a waterhole. The species is 
still quite common in our district, probably being 
found in greatest numbers about Inverleigh and 
Winchelsea. The flight is comparatively slow. Heard 
by night, as it usually is, the call of the Mountain 
Duck is almost startling, a sort of deep guttural 
croak. 
I have known Mountain Ducks to nest close to 
Gnarwarre. The old birds get the young out of the 
nests by carrying them in their bills, except when the 
hollow is directly over the water, in which case the 
young drop without assistance. If you come upon 
young Ducks of this species out on the plains, they 
conceal themselves by flattening themselves out close 
to the ground and remaining motionless, even allowing 
