The females are grey and black above and uniform cinnamon below. These curious Ducks are restricted to the torrents of the Andes, where they {117}are found in pairs, plunging in the cascades, diving below the boulders, or stemming the impetuous current with equal facility. [Illustration: FIG. 33.–Musk Duck. _Biziura lobata._ × ⅐. (From _Nature_).] Sub-fam. 3. _Erismaturinae._–_Biziura lobata_, of Tasmania and Australia–except the north–is brown with buff mottlings, the bill and its leathery appendage being greenish-black and the feet dusky. The smaller female has less chin-lobe. This species frequents the sea as well as lakes, roosts in trees, and when diving remains long submerged; the food consists of mussels, leeches, and aquatic worms; the note resembles the dropping of water. The nest, placed on a stump or in a bank, contains two olive eggs; the musky smell of the sitting female having suggested the name of Musk Duck. _Erismatura_ contains seven "Lake Ducks," inhabitants of fresh-water lagoons, which dive like Grebes, and remain with only the bill exposed; they are often tame, and when disturbed splash along the surface like a Moor-hen, to settle again almost immediately; in swimming the spiny tail is carried erect, suggesting a comparison to a "two-peaked saddle." The note is said to be a curious inward sound; the food is of fish, {118}molluscs, and insects; while the nest, built in rushy places, contains up to ten coarse-grained white eggs.[113] _E. leucocephala_, ranging from the Mediterranean to Southern Siberia, and in winter to North-West India or, exceptionally, to Holland, is rufous-brown with black vermiculations and bars, black crown and neck-ring; the rest of the head and neck being white, the bill blue, the feet dusky. _E. jamaicensis_, of Central and temperate North America, _E. ferruginea_, of Bolivia and Peru, _E. aequatorialis_, of Ecuador, _E. maccoa_, of South and East Africa, _E. vittata_, of southern South America, and _E. australis_, of South and West Australia and Tasmania, are brown with greyer belly mottled with dusky; the head and neck being black, except for the white cheeks and chin in the first-named and the chin only in the second and third. _E. aequatorialis_ has white instead of rufous under tail-coverts; _E. maccoa_ has white axillaries as opposed to grey in _E. vittata_; _E. australis_ is much deeper chestnut. The females are decidedly duller. _E._ (_Nomonyx_) _dominicus_, of Central, Southern, and, accidentally, Eastern North America, has the feathers of the back black in the middle and a white speculum. _Thalassiornis leuconota_, of South and East Africa with Madagascar, is variegated with black and ochreous yellow, the rump being white, the wings, tail, and feet brownish, the bill blue-grey. It dives much, flies little, and lays about four greenish eggs.