PLUMED WHISTLING DUCK. 
on two or three occasions, and once a flock of three hundred. They have 
a rather laborious flight, and are comparatively easy shooting. They seldom 
nest here, but nests of eggs have been reported to me in February.” 
North {Ptoc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. XXII., p. 60, 1897) summarised 
his observations thus : “ It is exclusively a fresh-water duck, and is generally 
met with in the shallow water near the margins of swamps and rivers, except 
during the breeding-season, when it resorts to well-grassed country some 
distance from water. Living chiefly on a vegetable diet, which consists 
principally of the tender buds of various aquatic plants and grasses, its 
flesh is much esteemed as an article of food, and for delicacy of flavour is 
considered by some to surpass that of any other duck inhabiting Australia.” 
The bird figured and described is a male, collected on Parry’s Creek, 
North-west Australia, on the 3rd February, 1909, by Mr. J. P. Rogers. 
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