File:A natural history of the ducks (1922) (14764945745).jpg

Identifier: naturalhistoryof01phil (find matches)
Title: A natural history of the ducks
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Phillips, John C. (John Charles), 1876-1938
Subjects: Ducks
Publisher: Boston New York : Houghton Mifflin company
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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feeds on grass, like the ordinary domestic goose, a very remarkable note, es-pecially since Pygmy Geese are usually regarded as being not active on land. Ma-thews (1910) records that the stomachs of three specimens taken in northeastAustralia contained seeds and grit. Courtship and Nesting. Nothing has been written about the courtship of thisspecies. As to the nesting, there is an interesting note by Gulliver (Mathews, 1914-15), who, after long observation, felt convinced that in the Gulf of Carpentariaregion the birds breed inland on the fresh-water lakes, returning to the coast as soonas the young are on the wing. They nest during the wet season, from about the middleof January to the middle of March. Rogers (Mathews, 1914-15), on Melville Island,on January 10, took specimens with well-developed eggs, while Gulliver (Mathews,1914-15) says they disappear from the coast about the middle of February. Fresheggs were taken near the Daly River (North Territory) on the 7th and 10th of Feb-
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LU ^ CO 5 o O GREEN PYGMY GOOSE 101 ruary (North, 1913). Gilbert (Gould, 1865), found a nest, January 16, at PortEssington. G. F. Hill (1913) had eggs brought to him on March 3 by a nativeand there are downy young from the East Alligator River (North Territory) takenApril 24, 1913. The Green Pygmy Goose has been found nesting both on the ground and in thetrees, depending probably on the availability of suitable forest areas. Campbell(1901) describes the nest as constructed of long dry grasses, the slight cavity forthe eggs being sometimes lined with feathers and down; usually resting upon thesurface of the water among the herbage of a swamp or lagoon. Possibly the eggs areoccasionally deposited in hollow trees. An earlier observer, Gilbert (Gould, 1865),at Port Essington found a nest built up in the long grass about a foot above thewater, the bottom of the nest resting on its surface; the nest was composed of drygrasses, and did not contain lining of any kind, but one obtained later w

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