Waterfowl in an inland swamp in New South Wales. 1. Habitat

Abstract

Cumbungi swamps are the most permanent waterfowl habitat in much of the inland of south-eastern Australia and are known to form valuable dry-weather refuges for many waterfowl and to provide favoured habitat at all times for some species. As part of a series of studies of the ecology of waterfowl in inland New South Wales the breeding and food of species found in such a swamp have been studied. This paper describes the general ecology of a cumbungi swamp and provides the introduction to a series of papers on the waterfowl encountered in it.