This bird could hardly be distinguished from the English rail in shape and plumage.  It is admirably adapted for making its way through reeds or grass, from its sharp breast.  There are numbers of this rail on the Murray, but not many on the Darling; the natives can easily run it down.  It was seen on two or three ponds in the interior and must have considerable powers of flight to wing its way from the one to the other as they successively dry up.

128.  BERNICLA JUBATA.—­Mained Goose, wood Duck.

There are two varieties of this beautiful goose, one bird being considerably larger than the other, but precisely the same in plumage.  In the colony they are called the wood duck, as they rest on logs and branches of trees, and are often in the depth of the forest.  They have an exceedingly small bill characteristic of their genus, and a beautifully mottled neck and breast, the head and neck being a light brown.  The smaller species is very common all over South-eastern Australia, but the larger bird is more rare.  Three only were shot during the progress of the Expedition.  Their range did not extend beyond 28 degrees.

129.  Cygnus ATRATUS—­The black Swan.

A description of this bird is here unnecessary.  I may merely observe that the only swan seen on the waters of the interior was a solitary one on Cooper’s Creek.  They frequently passed over us at night during our stay at the Depot, coming from and going to the N.W., being more frequently on the wing when the moon was shining bright than at any other time.

130.  CASARCA TADORNOIDES.—­Chesnut-coloured Sheldrake.

This beautiful duck, the pride of Australian waters, is a bird of the finest plumage.  He is called the Mountain Duck by the settlers, and may be more common in the hills than the low country, since he is seldom found in the latter district.  This bird builds in a tree, and when the young are hatched, the male bird carries them in his bill down to the ground.  Strange, whose name I have already mentioned, had an opportunity to watch two birds that had a brood of young in the hollow of a lofty tree on the Gawler; and after the male bird had deposited his charge, he went and secured the young, five in number, which he brought to me at Adelaide, but I could not, with every care, keep them alive more than a month.  This bird is very large as a duck; his head and neck are a fine green in colour, and he has a white ring round his neck, as also a white band across his wings.  It is not a good eating bird, however, as is often the case with the birds of finer plumage.

131.  ANAS SUPERCILIOSA, GMEL.—­The Wild Duck.

Unlike the preceding, this bird is one of the finest eating birds of Australia, being the wild duck of that continent.  It is a fine bird in point of size, but cannot boast the plumage of our mallard.  It is a bird of dark, almost black plumage, with a few glossy, green, secondary feathers, characteristic of the genus.  It is spread over the whole of the interior, even to the north of the Stony Desert, but was there very wild, and kept out of our reach.