AN AUSTRALIAN BIRD BOOK. 
67 
1 137*Pink-eared Duck (Pink-eyed, Zebra), Widgeon (e), 
1 Malacorhynchus memhranaceus. A., T. 
Nom. v.r. fresh water 17 
Under barred brown, white; face, chin white; black round 
eye; behind eye a spot of rose-pink; back, wings brown; 
upper base tail whitish; tail dark-brown slightly tipped 
white; f., smaller. Water-animals. 
I 138 Freckled Duck (Monkey), Stictonetta naevosa, V., 
1 S.A., W.A., T., N.S.W. v.r. water 17 
Dark-brown freckled whitish, under lighter. Small fish, 
pond-snails. 
1 139* White-eyed Duck (Purple- headed, White - winged) , 
8 Hardhead, Brownhead, Barwing, Karakahia, Aythya 
australis, N.G., A., T., N.Z., =vt. Canvas-back of N. 
Am. c. lagoons, hays 20 
Chestnut-brown; white patch on wing; upper abdomen 
whitish; under tail white; eye white; f., smaller, 
duller. Pond-snails, insects. 
1 140 Blue-billed Duck (Spiny-tailed, Stiff-tailed, Diving), 
7 Erismatura australis, N.S.W., V., S.A., W.A., T. 
v.r. reedheds 16 
Head, neck black; chest, back, flanks chestnut; tail black- 
~ ish; bill light-blue; f., bill olive-green; freckled gray- 
brown; under lighter. Insects, pond-snails, fish. 
1 141 Musk Duck (Must), Mould Goose (e), Biziura lohata^ 
1 S.Q., N.S.W., v., S.A., W.A., T. 
Stat. c. lagoons, hays 26 
Blackish freckled buffy-white; wings small; long stiff tail- 
feathers; bill, lobe beneath chin greenish-black; dives; 
f., half-size; duller; no lobe. Frogs, shellfish, shrimps. 
flaps along the surface with its short wings, but hesitates to exer- 
cise its "feeble grebe-like flight." 
Some writers declare that the large Musk Duck is the most 
remarkable of the many remarkable birds of Australia. It is the 
only known species of the genus, and is "singularly different from 
every other member of the Duck family," as Gould points out. 
Gould further says that "this extraordinary bird reminds one of 
the Cormorants. Like many other of these antipodean forms, it 
must be regarded as an anomaly." The male has a lengthened, 
stiff, and leather-like appendage under the bill. The female is 
without this pouch, and is but half the size of the male. A pair 
is often to be seen on a sheltered bay or on an inland dam, and 
yet this bird has very feeble powers of flight. It is difficult 
to cause one to take to flight. Mr. A. J. Campbell summed up 
an instructive discussion on this point in the columns of The 
Australasian by concluding that Musk Ducks can fly, though they 
do so almost entirely at night. 
There are six families of birds included in Order XIV. — the 
Totally-webbed Swimmers. All four toes are joined by a web. 
Ducks have three toes only joined by the web, the hind toe 
