mountain duckn.
/ˈmaʊntᵻn ˌdʌk/, U.S. /ˈmaʊnt(ə)n ˌdək/, Australian English /ˈmæɔnt(ə)n ˌdʌk/, New Zealand English /ˈmæunt(ə)n ˌdʌk/ 1. Australian. The Australian shelduck, Tadorna tadornoides, which has a chestnut breast and a white ring around the neck.
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the world > animals > birds > freshwater birds > order Anseriformes (geese, etc.) > subfamily Merginae (duck) > [noun] > member of genus Tadorna (sheldrake)
sheldrakec1325
bergander1544
skeeling-goose1578
scaledrake1600
burranet1602
sheld-fowl?1606
burrow-duck1678
vulpanser1706
shelduck1707
mountain duck1711
sly-goose1776
Brahminy duck1813
paradise duck1813
red goose1848
stock annet1852
1711 Atlas Geographus I. v. 129/2 Mountain-Ducks, which are very good Meat, but their Fat is thrown away, because it tasts like Train-Oil, and makes Men sick.
1820 C. Jeffreys Van Dieman's Land 35 This lake abounds with..teal, mountain ducks, coots.
1892 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Nevermore II. 162 A magnificent specimen of that finest of all the family—the ‘mountain duck’—with his bronzed-fawn and metallic plumage.
1955 S. Osborne Duck Shooting Austral. 12 The Mountain Duck is a general black colour with a chestnut breast.
1980 Ecos 24 12/2 A female mountain duck chose to lay her eggs in the same hollow.
2. U.S. The harlequin duck, Histrionicus histrionicus. Now rare.
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the world > animals > birds > freshwater birds > order Anseriformes (geese, etc.) > subfamily Merginae (duck) > [noun] > histrionicus histrionicus (harlequin duck)
rock duck1704
lord and lady1766
harlequin1772
mountain duck1831
1831 W. Swainson & J. Richardson Fauna Boreali-Americana II. 459 Harlequin duck... Painted Duck, also Mountain Duck.
1917 T. G. Pearson Birds Amer. I. 142 Harlequin Duck. Histrionicus histrionicus... [Also called] Mountain Duck.
3. Originally New Zealand. A blue-grey New Zealand duck, Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos, found chiefly on streams and rivers in mountainous areas. Also called blue duck, whio.
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1946 Jrnl. Polynesian Soc. June 160 Whio, a water-bird (Hymenolaimus malacorhynchus), blue-duck, mountain-duck, whistling duck.
1966 Encycl. N.Z. I. 499/2 The most peculiar is undoubtedly the blue duck, mountain duck, or whio.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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