BLACK DUCK. 
Miss J. Fletcher sent me the following notes from Cleveland, 
Tasmania : “ Last season I discovered that the Macquarie Biver was a 
great place for all kinds of wild Ducks, but unfortunately owing to the 
extra wet season the river was constantly in flood and hundreds of eggs 
and nests of various waterfowl were washed away. These birds were 
plentiful but shy. They nested on the marshes some distance from the 
water, but I have never found the nest myself. Principally because 
their clutches are laid in July and early August, and the weather was 
wild and stormy. On 16 Aug., 1910, a boy’s dog flushed a Black Duck 
from a nest in a sword-grass tussock where she was sitting on eight 
ducklings. Next day they had left the nest. Oct. 31, 1910. I had 
a clutch of Black Duck eggs sent to me. Nest was in sword-grass tussock 
in swamp, and eggs were hard set.” 
Mr. Robert Hall, writing of the Birds of the Murray River District 
in the E^nu, Vol. IX., p. 78, 1909, states : “ This species and the Teal 
are the first to pair and nest. Both young and adult love to fish about 
the lilies and ‘ pussy-tail ’ weeds in search of shrimps and little ‘ yabbies.’ 
A flock will get in close order to fish by themselves and not in con- 
junction with the Coots as some other Ducks do. By adopting this mass 
method they generally ‘ bustle ’ the shrimps as the Pelicans do the beach 
fishes. When travelling a boat through the lagoon waters the shrimps 
and bream jump out because of fright. The birds appear to purposely 
frighten the shrimps in the shallow waters. The Cormorants will catch 
above as well as below when hunting in this way. On 29th April, 1907, 
as many as 300 Cormorants of mixed species were hunting in mass 
upon the weedy lagoons, where many Duck were also. The Black Duck 
is about the heaviest for its size, and invariably reaches the highest 
market price. (Melbourne).” 
Mr. G. Savidge (Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., no. 1, Vol. IV., 1913, p. 75) 
records : “ The Black Duck {Anas superciliosa) is found in all kipds of 
situations on the large inlets of the sea, rivers, swamps, lagoons, and 
even small waterholes are sometimes tenanted by a pair or so. I have 
seen it on the Ulmarra Swamps in large flocks comprising many hundreds ; 
it is close on thirty years ago since my first acquaintance with it in the 
Clarence River District, and at that time it was so numerous it was 
no uncommon thing for a couple of guns to bag over one hundred in 
a single day. I have seen and heard them rise from the Ulmarra Swamps 
like the distant roar of thunder, and found their breeding-places many 
times, mostly in long blady grass and rushes, but not infrequently in 
the hole of a tree some distance from water.” 
St 
VOL. IV. 
89 
