Species Described in 1796 - Animals Described in 1796, Plants Described in 1796, Musk Duck, Clarkia Purpurea, Nephopterix Angustella (Paperback)

Chapters: Animals Described in 1796, Plants Described in 1796, Musk Duck, Clarkia Purpurea, Nephopterix Angustella, Triaxomera Parasitella. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 18. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Musk Duck (Biziura lobata) is a highly aquatic, stiff-tailed duck native to southern Australia. It is the only living member of the genus Biziura. An extinct relative, the New Zealand Musk Duck or de Lautour's Duck (B. delautouri) once occurred on New Zealand, but is only known from prehistoric subfossil bones. It was about 8% longer than the living species, with a particularly large head. They are moderately common through the Murray-Darling and Cooper Creek basins, and in the wetter, fertile areas in the south of the continent: the south-west corner of Western Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania. Musk Ducks avoid the far north, or the arid west and north-west. Adult male, Tidbinbilla, ACT, AustraliaAdult males are 60 to 70 cm long and have a distinctive large, leathery lobe underneath the bill; females are 47 to 55 cm long and unadorned. Their drab dark grey-brown, sightly pin-striped plumage is unconspicuous and does not differ between the sexes. Musk Ducks float very low in the water, almost like a cormorant, and the large webbed feet are well back on the body. The ducklings are covered in dark brown down. In its native range, the fanned tail is distinctive, allowing to distinguish this species from the Freckled Duck (Stictonetta naevosa) which has similar size, coloration and habits. The Blue-billed Duck (Oxyura australis) has a similarly shaped tail but the main colour of its males in breeding plumage is a much richer chestnut brown. Females and males in nonbreeding plumage are very similar however and if one is not intimately familiar with the slight differences in b...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=25601