musk-duck

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

n.


the Australian bird, Biziuralobata, Shaw. See Duck.

1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 30:

«The ungainly musk-duck paddles clumsily away from the passingsteamer, but hardly out of gunshot, for he seems to know thathis fishy flesh is not esteemed by man.»

1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 159:

«That's a musk duck: the plumage is very sombre and looselooking – – not so thick as most other ducks; the tail, too, issingular, little more than a small fan of short quills. Thehead of the male has a kind of black leathery excrescence underthe bill that gives it an odd expression, and the whole birdhas a strange odour of musk, rendering it quite uneatable.»

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