APPENDIX. 
401 
Mr. Bennett also records finding a nest of this species on 30th 
July in a slight hollow of a stump standing in the water, 
containing six eggs enveloped as usual in a mass of down, and 
another on 12th September, in the disused nest of Corone australis, 
on the branches of a tree about twelve or fourteen feet above the 
water. 
Hah. Derby, N.W. Australia, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, 
Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, 
Interior, "Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, West and South¬ 
west Australia. (Ramsay.) 
ERISMATURA AUSTRALIS, Gould. 
Blue-billed Duck. 
Gould, Handbk. Ms. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 594, p. 379. 
Several instances of this bird having bred in New South Wales 
have recently come under my notice; during 1888 I saw four 
young birds that were obtained near Trangie, and this year (1889) 
Mr. Bennett in his notes records the finding of a nest on the 2nd 
of November at Yandembah, New South Wales, while engaged 
in looking for the nests of the Glossy Ibis. Mr. Bennett writes as 
follows :_“ On a further examination of this large sheet of water 
I discovered a nest of the Blue-billed Duck, Erismatura australis, 
containing fragments of egg shells showing that some had already 
been hatched, and one egg with a live young one just upon the 
point of hatching, so it is evident that this rare duck occasionally 
breeds here. The nest was a rather neatly made cup-shaped 
structure, composed of rushes, and was placed in a low Polygonum 
bush a few inches above the water. The old female I disturbed 
from the nest, whilst the male was a few feet away in company 
with several newly hatched young ones.” 
Hab. New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, Wes t 
and South-west Australia. (Ramsay.) 
