A book puzzle. I have the 1924 facsimile of Augustus
Baker Peirce’s ‘Knocking About’. The American-born
Peirce did indeed knock about Vic and NSW 1859-1892, including pioneering steam
navigation on the Murray/Murrumbidgee/Darling. I have scratched my head
over a passage about the then wildlife. Of ‘Snake Swamp’ (a
billabong?) near the Murray between Swan Hill and Wentworth, he writes: ‘The
swamp seemed covered with legions of feathered creatures – thousands of ibex
(sic), white cranes, native companions, piebald geese, and Cape Java blue duck
...’ The question is: what was the ‘Cape Java blue duck’?
Apparently the Australian Wood Duck was sometimes known as Blue Duck.
However Peirce goes on: ‘On the other side great quantities of gray
wood duck covered the river.’ So it seems he knew what a wood
duck was, unless that was some other species again, such as Grey Teal. I
wonder if a ‘blue duck’ could have been a swamphen, just as a ‘blue
crane’ was a heron, and a ‘blue jay’ was a cuckoo-shrike.
Moreover, I am unable to find any reference to a ‘Cape
Java’. I would be interested in any thoughts.
