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Grey Duck and the “ Black Teal ” or Scaup. It always retires up the creeks in the woods diiring 
the day, or conceals itself among the sedges and vegetation which usually fringe the inland water- 
courses and lagoons. At Horowhenua, for example, where they are particularly abundant, you rarely 
surprise one, except by means of a dog, during the heat of the day. But after sunset they begin to 
collect on the surface of the lake, emerging in pairs from their concealment, swimming down to the 
mouth of the bush creek, and then taking wing to their place of rendezvous. They then form into 
flocks, sometimes of considerable size, and are on the alert, feeding about the lake generally all 
night long. When hunting for its food, it makes a peculiar and rather musical sniffing noise. 
For many miles along the low banks of the Manawatu and other tidal rivers in the North Island 
there are what the settlers term “ kahikatea swamps,” extending often considerable distances inland. 
Here the land, at all times wet and swampy, is liable to frequent inundations from the river freshets. 
The trees, which consist almost entirely of white pine, are laden with a prodigal growth of kiekie 
( Freycinetia banksii), which entwines itself around the trunks, throwing out, tier above tier, its waving 
bunches of flag-leaves till a single tree sometimes supports many tons of this epiphytic growth ; it also 
spreads along the damp ground, forming an almost impenetrable tangle, and shading from the sunlight 
the deep water-holes left by the subsiding river. Into this secure retreat, where the sportsman and 
his dog alike are baffled by the very exuberance of the vegetation, the Brown Duck loves to betake 
itself during the day, coming out in the cool hours of the evening to feed in the creeks and lagoons. 
This Duck often wanders to a distance from its usual haunts. It has been met with in a raupo 
swamp far up the Wangaehu valley, and Captain Mair has found it among the thick undergrowth in 
a kakikatea swamp, in the remote Urewera country. 
In the settlers’ bush-clearings at Eketahuna, in the Forty-mile Bush, I found them long 
after dark in the drains or w^atercourses along the sides of the road, diligently hunting for their food 
and uttering at intervals a soft and rather musical note. They were veiy tame, allowing, me to 
approach within a few feet of them. 
It is a very indiflerent flier, but swims well and dives with facility. When shooting on a lake 
near Tiakitahuna, in the tipper Manawatu, some years ago, I came upon a flock of sixty or more of 
these birds ; instead of taking wing when closely followed, they swam towards the shore, and then 
forming into a line they hurried forward in a very impetuous manner, keeping close under the banks 
of the lake, and uttering a low confused twitter. 
It nests in places contiguous to its ordinary haunts, always selecting a dry and secluded spot for 
that purpose. Like many other Ducks, it forms its nest of dry grass, and lines the interior with soft 
down plucked from its own body. The eggs, which vary in number from five to eight, are very oval, 
large for the size of the bird, measuring 2’3 inches in length by 1'7 in breadth, and of a dark cieara 
colour, with a slightly greasy surface. 
Some years ago I received, from Mr. Taylor W^hite, of Hawke s Bay, two skins of a Duck which \\ as 
alleged to be a cross between the wild Grey Duck and the domestic species. The bird is undoubtedly 
a hybrid, but I am rather inclined to think that the male parent belonged to the present species or to 
Anas giUerifrons and not to Anas superciliosa *. I presented both specimens to the Colonial Museum, 
but before doing so I made the following notes : — 
. General plumage slaty grey on the upper, and white on the underparts ; erown and nape steel-hlaek ; throat 
white mottled with grey. Colours very indeterminate, the j)lumage of the haek being mueh varied and 
* Mr. Taylor White has, however, given the following particulars of another case in which the parent was undoubtedly of 
the latter species. He writes : — “About nine years ago a Grey Duck (Anas sitperciliosa) was trapped in the Wakatipu Lake 
district, and readily became tamo, but was very shy with strangers. In the third spring it paired with a Domestic uo 
(A. boschtts). A brood of six hybrids was roared. 
“ 1. These mainly partook in type of the Domestic Duck, but were smaller and more plump in shape , colour creamy brown 
2l 2 
