THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
young birds flying with the adults. Nov. 10, 1907. Half-grown young on 
tank. Dec. 14, 1905. Brood of small young in down with parents on tank. 
I have seen 26 at a time on stock tank, but never a green head.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor adds : “ This is our common teal in South Australia, 
and is sent into the market in thousands in Adelaide : the colour of the 
birds does not differ all the vear round. I have noted the hides of the 
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old bhds a deep blood-red. They love to go in large flocks, and in some 
instances where they are undisturbed they congregate in thousands in a 
mob ; theh flight is very swift indeed, and the call of the duck a peculiar 
little note, cack-cack-cack, repeated in quick sharp succession for about 
6 or 8 times, this being especially noticeable while flying swiftly through 
the ah at night : the drake has a sharp little whistle, repeated in a 
jerky fashion in answering his mate. While flying, a conspicuous point 
one notices is the white on the qufll-feathers of the wing which shows 
out prominently.” 
Mr. Sandland writes : “ Very plentiful on tanks and very seldom one 
goes round the tanks without seeing a few. Nested in 1903-1904 (December 
to February) after an extraordinary thunderstorm, when over six inches of 
rain fell and there was surface-water for months. Flappers were to be 
seen in hundreds on every swamp near Balah, South Australia.” 
Berney, regarding North Queensland, wrote {Emu, Vol. VI., p. 157, 
1907) : “ Although of this species and the former {Anas superciliosa) the Teal 
is more commonly seen, I have only on one occasion come across evidence 
of its nesting here. On the 12th April, 1906, I saw an old bird with six 
ducklings in the down. They will average a pound weight, going up to a 
pound and a quarter.” 
Macgillivray {Emu, Vol. XIII., p. 147, 1914) added : “ This Duck was 
very numerous on the lakes at Sedan and Byromine, N. Queensland, and 
nesting freely in the hollow trees. The nests contained from five to twelve 
eggs, the average clutch being seven or eight. Eggs were nearly all 
hard-set at the end of March, 1910.” 
North’s remarks {Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., no. 1, Vol. IV., p. 80, 1913) 
read : “ Although found in Northern Australia, the Slender Teal is more 
abundantly distributed throughout the eastern and south-eastern portion 
of the continent. In New South Wales it is without exception the most 
common species of the family Anatidce, and is met with throughout the year. 
It frequents the same situations as its congener Nettion castaneum — 
rivers, swamps and lagoons both near the coast and inland. Thousands 
of these birds are shot every year, but without any apparent diminution 
of their numbers, judging by the enormous flocks to be seen inland. 
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