WIDGEON OR PINK-EARED DUCK 131 
them in great numbers. The bird's appearance is 
distinctive ; it is the only Duck we have whose 
breast is regularly barred with brown and white, and 
from these bars the common name Zebra Duck is 
derived. The specific name membranaceus has refer- 
ence to the soft membrane which hangs at the side 
of the bill towards its tip, while an oblong patch of 
rose-pink feathers behind the eye gives the reason for 
the vernacular or list-name " Pink-eared Duck. 
Seen on a flooded river, this is the tamest and most 
graceful little creature imaginable. I have rowed 
to within a yard of Widgeon on the Barwon, near the 
Breakwater, in flood-time, without the birds taking 
alarm. Corangamite is said to be a great resort of 
this species. In the Geelong district it does not 
breed. 
FRECKLED DUCK 
Stictonetta ncevosa 
Shooters in other parts of Australia call this the 
Monkey Duck ; here it is better known as the Gadwall, 
from a supposed resemblance to that European Duck. 
Very little is known of its habits. The centre of 
distribution of the species would seem to lie in the 
southern parts of the Continent, and yet it is not a 
common bird here or elsewhere. Though in its 
plumage of uniform dark brown, minutely freckled 
with white, the Freckled Duck has about it something 
which suggests the Musk Duck, it differs from that 
