THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Eggs. Clutch, two or three ; ground-colour pale green ; surface rough and slightly glossy. 
Axis 75-84 mm. ; diameter 52-54. 
Breeding -season. August to December. 
I HAVE more notes than usual in connection with this Duck, as it has been * 
more closely observed on account of its many peculiarities, but it will be 
conceded that really little is known of its life-history, and yet a more 
interesting topic for study could scarcely be found. 
Miss J. Fletcher has written from Tasmania : “In the Cleveland Lagoon 
one old Drake was quite a familiar feature. He used to swim over the open 
water at a great pace and evidently enjoyed himself, as he would travel 
backwards and forwards across the same stretch of water. The noise he made 
could be heard plainly at the edges and occasionally he would give a grunt. 
In Diprose Lagoon these Ducks would be swimming about and when observed 
would dive and come up further on or seek shelter in the rushes. They 
appeared to eat the white masses of frogs’ spawn which at certain times is 
found clinging to the reeds. From the observations of my sisters and myself, 
I have come to the conclusion that the female does not build or make her nest 
until she actually requires it and the first egg is sometimes laid in the 
unfinished nest. When the second egg is laid, down is added, and by the tune 
incubation is finished the nest is indeed snug. When robbed, the bird after 
a week or so makes a nest in almost the next clump of reeds. Should 
misfortune attend this clutch she sometimes returns to the first nest. I have 
noted three instances where the Musk Duck made her nest under that of a 
Swamp Hawk {Circus gouldi), probably because the latter generally chooses 
thick clumps of reeds on which to place her nest. The Musk Duck lays an 
egg every day and as a rule sits as soon as the second egg is laid. Clumps of 
reeds surrounding or bordering lakelets in the lagoons are favoured localities. 
When disturbed the female dives straight from the mouth of the nest into 
the water below and so gets away. A tiny reed-covered lagoon in extent 
about two acres was too deep to search at the beginning of the season. At 
the end of November an examination revealed eleven nests of these Ducks 
with hatched egg-sheUs, and judging by the egg-sheU fragments several 
clutches must have been composed of three eggs. Never once have I been 
lucky enough to see the ducklings swimming about. In one instance a musk 
duck had laid her clutch of three in a nest in which had been left a last 
season’s egg. This egg I broke and found in it a full-grown duckling covered 
with black down, and with bill, feet and legs black. It was too putrid to put 
in spirits. The lagoons were constantly rising, owing to the frequent heavy 
rains, and in several of the nests the eggs were really in water. I weighed 
148 
