of Cua A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS IN FOUR VOLUMES VOLUME I PLATE 1 THE DUCK MARSH solace ae oruR. a ( ‘ onan Instityge So l@_ S : SAGE ; Y BOSTON AND NEW YORE HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Biversive Press Cambridge 1922 COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY JOHN C. PHILLIPS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Riversive Press CAMBRIDGE - MASSACHUSETTS PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. ACKNOWLEDGMENT To Mr. William L. Langer, whose knowledge of languages and bibliography has been indispensable, I owe a lasting debt for many summers of faithful work. Major Allan Brooks and Louis Agassiz Fuertes have given much time and thought to their drawings and have helped me with their gen- eral knowledge of the Duck Tribe. Dr. Glover M. Allen has devoted val- uable time to checking references, and his advice has served to smooth out many wrinkles. To Frank W. Benson, who has done so much in teaching us the decorative value of water-fowl, I owe the frontispiece of this first volume. Lastly I must say a word for the patient and painstaking manner in which many naturalists and sportsmen have answered hun- dreds of long and tedious letters. JoHN C. PHILLIPS Wenuam, MassacHusetts November, 1922 CONTENTS WILD-FOWL, sy Pat Ta-sHUN INTRODUCTION ORDER CHENOMORPH#, SUBORDER ANSERES, FAMILY ANATIDZ SUBFAMILY PLECTROPTERINZ SPUR-WINGED Goose, Plectropterus gambensis (Brisson) Back SPuR-wWINGED Gooss, Plectropterus gambensis niger Sclater Muscovy Duck, Catrina moschata (Linné) Comp or Knos-BILLED Duck, Sarcidiornis melanota (Pennant) Souta American Coms Duck, Sarcidiornis carunculata (Lichtenstein) WuitE-wincEeD Woop Duck, Asarcornis scutulata (S. Miiller) Hartiavs’s TEAL, Péteronetta hartlaubi (Cassin) PrinK-HEADED Duck, Rhodonessa caryophyllacea (Latham) ArricaNn Pyamy Goose, Nettapus auritus (Boddaert) GREEN Pyemy Goosz, Nettapus pulchellus (Gould) Inp1an Pyemy Goosk or Corton Trat, Netiapus coromandelianus (Gmelin) SUBFAMILY DENDROCYGNINE Waits-FAcED TREE Ducks, Dendrocygna viduata (Linné) Futvous Tree Duck, Dendrocygna bicolor (Vieillot) WanveERInG TREE Duck, Dendrocygna arcuata (Horsfield) Lesser Wuistiine Tra, Dendrocygna javanica (Horsfield) BLACK-BELLIED TREE Duck, Dendrocygna autumnalis (Linné) GRAY-BREASTED TREE Duck, Dendrocygna discolor Sclater and Salvin BLAcK-BILLED TREE Duck, Dendrocygna arborea (Linné) Srorrep Tree Duck, Dendrocygna guttulata Wallace Eyton’s TREE Duck, Dendrocygna eytoni (Eyton) 102 113 117 128 140 148 157 163 168 174 177 vill CONTENTS SUBFAMILY ANATINZ Eeyptian Goose, Alopochen egyptiacus (Brisson) Orinoco Gooss, Alopochen jubatus (Spix) Common SHELDRAKE, TJ adorna tadorna (Linné) RapJAH SHELDRAKE, Tadorna radjah (Garnot) Tadorna radjah rufitergqum Hartert CRESTED SHELDRAKE, Pseudotadorna cristata Kuroda Ruppy SHELDRAKE, Casarca ferruginea (Pallas) SoutH ArricAN SHELDRAKE, Casarca cana (Gmelin) New ZEALAND OR PARADISE SHELDRAKE, Casarca variegata (Gmelin) AUSTRALIAN SHELDRAKE, Casarca tadornoides (Jardine and Selby) 183 187 200 204 224 227 228 230 Q47 250 259 Plate 1. Plate 2. Plate 3. Plate 4. Plate 5. Plate 6. Plate 7. Plate 8. Plate 9. Plate 10. Plate 11. Plate 12. LIST OF PLATES Tue Duck MarsH Frontispiece By Frank W. Benson SPUR-WINGED GooskE, Plectropterus gambensis (Brisson). Adult male By Louis Agassiz Fuertes facing page 50 Muscovy Duck, Catrina moschata (Linné). Adult male and female By Louis Agassiz Fuertes facing page 58 Comp or Knos-BinteD Duck, Sarcidiornis melanota (Pennant). Adult male and female facing page 68 By Louis Agassiz Fuertes South American Comp Duck, Sarcidiornis carunculata (Lichtenstein) Adult male and female facing page 78 By Louis Agassiz Fuertes WuitEe-wincep Woop Duck, Asarcornis scutulata (S. Miiller). Adult male and female facing page 80 By Louis Agassiz Fuertes Hartiaus’s Tra, Pteronetta hartlaubi (Cassin). Adult male, female, and downy young facing page 86 By Louis Agassiz Fuertes Pink-HEADED Duck, Rhodonessa caryophyllacea (Latham). Adult male and female facing page 90 By Louis Agassiz Fuertes ArricaN Pygmy Gooss, Nettapus auritus (Boddaert). Adult male and female facing page 94 By Louis Agassiz Fuertes Green Pyemy Goose, Nettapus pulchellus (Gould). Adult male Inp1an Pyemy Goost or Cotton TEAt, Nettapus coromandelianus (Gmelin) Adult male and female facing page 100 By Louis Agassiz Fuertes WuitE-FAceD TREE Duck, Dendrocygna viduata (Linné). Adult BLACK-BELLIED TREE Duck, Dendrocygna autumnalis (Linné). Adult GRAY-BREASTED TREE Duck, Dendrocygna discolor Sclater and Salvin Adult facing page 118 By Louis Agassiz Fuertes Foutvous Tree Duck, Dendrocygna bicolor (Vieillot). Adult Lesser Wuistiine TEAL, Dendrocygna javanica (Horsfield) Adult WANDERING TREE Duck, Dendrocygna arcuata (Horsfield) Adult By Louis Agassiz Fuertes facing page 128 x Plate 13. Plate 14. Plate 15. Plate 16. Plate 17. Plate 18. LIST OF PLATES Downy Younc oF TrEE Ducks BLACK-BELLIED TREE Duck, Dendrocygna autumnalis (Linné) Futvous Tree Duck, Dendrocygna bicolor (Vieillot) Lesser WuistLiIne TEAL, Dendrocygna javanica (Horsfield) facing page 148 By Allan Brooks Spottep TREE Duck, Dendrocygna guttulata Wallace. Adult Eyton’s Tree Duck, Dendrocygna eytoni (Eyton). Adult BLACK-BILLED TREE Duck, Dendrocygna arborea (Linné). Adult By Louis Agassiz Fuertes facing page 168 Ecyptian Goose, Alopochen egyptiacus (Brisson). Adult Orinoco Goose, Alopochen jubatus (Spix). Adult facing page 188 By Louis Agassiz Fuertes Common SHELDRAKE, Tadorna tadorna (Linné). Adult male and female RaDJAH SHELDRAKE, Tadorna radjah (Garnot). Adult male facing page 204 By Louis Agassiz Fuertes Ruppy SHELDRAKE, Casarca ferruginea (Pallas). Adult male and female SoutH AFRICAN SHELDRAKE, Casarca cana (Gmelin). Adult male and female facing page 230 By Louis Agassiz Fuertes New ZEALAND OR PARADISE SHELDRAKE, Casarca variegata (Gmelin) Adult male and female AUSTRALIAN SHELDRAKE, Casarca tadornoides (Jardine and Selby). Adult male and female facing page 250 By Louis Agassiz Fuertes = > la] dm © to ee LIST OF MAPS . Distribution of Spur-winged Goose (Plectropterus gambensis) facing page . Distribution of Muscovy Duck (Catrina moschata) facing page . Distribution of Comb Duck (Sarcidiornis melanota) facing page . Distribution of South American Comb Duck (Sarcidiornis carunculata) facing page . Distribution of White-winged Wood Duck (Asarcornis scutulata) facing page . Distribution of Hartlaub’s Teal (Pteronetta hartlaubt) facing page . Distribution of Pink-headed Duck (Rhodonessa caryophyllacea) facing page . Distribution of African Pygmy Goose (Nettapus auritus) facing page . Distribution of Green Pygmy Goose (Nettapus pulchellus) facing page . Distribution of Indian Pygmy Goose (Nettapus coromandelianus) facing page . Distribution of White-faced Tree Duck (Dendrocygna viduata) facing page . Distribution of Fulvous Tree Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) facing page . Distribution of Wandering Tree Duck (Dendrocygna arcuata) facing page . Distribution of Lesser Whistling Teal (Dendrocygna javanica) facing page . Distribution of Black-bellied Tree Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis) facing page . Distribution of Gray-breasted Tree Duck (Dendrocygna discolor) facing page . Distribution of Black-billed Tree Duck (Dendrocygna arborea) facing page . Distribution of Spotted Tree Duck (Dendrocygna guttulata) facing page . Distribution of Eyton’s Tree Duck (Dendrocygna eytoni) facing page . Distribution of Egyptian Goose (Alopochen egyptiacus) facing page . Distribution of Orinoco Goose (Alopochen jubatus) facing page . Distribution of Common Sheldrake (Tadorna tadorna) facing page . Distribution of Radjah Sheldrake (Tadorna radjah) facing page . Distribution of Ruddy Sheldrake (Casarca ferruginea) facing page . Distribution of South African Sheldrake (Casarca cana) facing page . Distribution of New Zealand Sheldrake (Casarca variegata) facing page . Distribution of Australian Sheldrake (Casarca tadornoides) facing page A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS WILD-FOWL How oft against the sunset sky or moon I watched that moving zig-zag of spread wings Tn unforgotten autumns gone too soon, In unforgotten springs! Creatures of desolation! Far they fly Above all lands bound by the curling foam. In misty fens, wild moors, and trackless sky These wild things have their home. They know the tundra of Siberian coasts And tropic marshes by the Indian seas. They know the clouds and nights, and starry hosts From Crux to Pleiades. Dark flying rune against the western glow, It tells the sweep and loneliness of things, Symbol of autumns vanished long ago, Symbol of coming springs. Pat Ta-sHun INTRODUCTION Since the dawn of history wild-fowl have occupied the attention of man. The Egyp- tians well knew their value as an article of diet, and one can still see many different kinds faithfully reproduced on the bas-reliefs of the earlier dynasties, together with the nets and boats used in catching them. At least one species they held sacred; but domestication of ducks does not appear to have been perfected until the Roman times. Long before the Egyptians, we can imagine that the great hosts of water-fowl which peopled the earth must have been not only a source of nourishment, but an inspiration to primitive man. Indeed, in southern Spain neolithic cave drawings of swans, geese, and ducks have been discovered which must be six thousand or eight thousand years old. We can picture the Eskimos on ice-bound coasts casting longing glances to the south as the sun rose higher and open water began to form in the snow- covered bays. And we know how our own Amerinds hunted ducks and geese with bow and arrow and with primitive traps. Eggs, especially of the sea ducks, were highly valued then, just as they are now, while the skins and down supplied warm clothing, and numerous ornaments as well. Even in Central Asia Prjewalsky found the degraded inhabitants of the Lob-Nor depending largely on ducks for their food- supply. So important were wild ducks to these people that they appeared as a regu- lar part of the purchase money supplied to the parents of a bride. It is not difficult to understand that creatures which come and go almost with the regularity of the sun and moon must have impressed themselves strongly upon the mind of primitive man, especially in Northern regions. Even as the migrating quail are supposed to have saved the Israelites from starvation in the wilderness, so wild- fowl must have tided over periods of distress in the life of our ancestors. In our own times civilized peoples have learned more and more to appreciate the ducks, geese, and swans. Many beautiful poems have been inspired by pictures of sharp-winged squadrons seen against crisp autumn skies, and few and slothful indeed are those individuals whose pulses do not quicken and whose eyes do not brighten as our great gray geese plough through the depths of space, seeming to make the dome of the sky ever higher and more mysterious. Lovers of the smaller water-fowl are found in increasing numbers, and when the means are at hand, this love is expressed in ornamental pools stocked with scores of the most beautiful varieties, or zoological gardens containing rare species, from dainty Teal to huge and vicious Spur-wings. There are no more beautiful birds in the world than Mandarins and Carolina Ducks, especially if they can be maintained in a free-flying state, and no others are so well suited to the requirements of the amateur enthusiast. 4 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS Many epicures consider the flesh of prime wild ducks superior to that of all other game, and ducks are still sold literally by the carload in most of the large markets of the world. European and English markets had even begun to draw upon Russia and China before the war. Fortunately we in America have stopped the trade in ducks, and hope to preserve for future generations at least a taste of the thrilling sport we have enjoyed, and an occasional dish of the delicate birds as well. Upon the lordly Canvas-back of the Chesapeake, which made old Frank Forester’s mouth fairly run with water, whole volumes of praise have been lavished. But of our American Widgeon and Ruddy Ducks almost as much might be written. RELATIONSHIP AutHouau the present work is not especially concerned with classification, it is fit- ting that the relationships of the order be briefly sketched. First of all we want to know how to diagnose the Anseres (lamellirostral swimmers), and where to place them among other birds. Second, we naturally ask about the records of fossil ducks and geese in geological time. Third, we ought to know something about the great groups, or subfamilies into which these toothed-billed swimming birds are divided, and what their characteristics are; the lesser groups, or genera, may well be left to the text of the book. And, fourth, one ought with considerable trepidation to ven- ture an opinion as to which group or family seems to be the most primitive, and which the most specialized. Finally, something should be said explaining the reasons for arranging the ducks in the order in which they will appear; although it must be recognized that any arrangement is purely arbitrary, and tells very little of the- actual relationship. The Anseres form a large and rather diverse order including the swans, geese, and ducks. They have the bill moderately long or short, covered with soft skin, and on the front or anterior end a nail-like, horny plate, which sometimes curves over the end of the bill like a hook. The bill is usually flattened and the edges are supplied with horny teeth, or lamelle. The tarsus is short, usually shorter than the middle toe, and the front toes are webbed. The wings may be short, or moderately long, and the young are precocial. The most important external characteristics are the short legs, webbed feet, and laminated bill. Anatomically this order agrees with the storks in having the bridge or band form of palate (desmognathous), but differs from them in having basipterygoid processes, two pairs of a certain muscle attached to the windpipe (tracheosternal); and well- developed, functional ceca. A group of birds called the screamers (Palamedee) from South America is often included as a suborder codrdinate with the swans, geese, and ducks. These birds are structurally very gooselike, although they do not look so. They are wading birds, about the size of a small turkey, with a short decurved bill, and enormous feet with- INTRODUCTION 5 out webs to the toes. They should probably be elevated to the rank of an order by themselves. The flamingoes, or Phenicoptert, are intermediate between anserine birds on the one hand and the storks and herons on the other. Sometimes they appear as a sub- order next to the swans, geese, and ducks, but according to the American Ornitholo- gists’ Union’s classification they are placed in a special order of their own. Speaking very generally, therefore, more or less successful investigations connect the duck tribe with the flamingoes, through the geese, and so rather definitely with the storks and herons. Through the screamers our group may be distantly connected with the rails and cranes. On the other end of our series of anserine birds, where as a rule the Mergansers and Torrent Ducks are placed, we have to admit the presence of a gap extremely difficult to bridge. In fact some authorities do not attempt to bridge this gap at all, but start afresh with the birds of prey, the pigeons, or the tinamus. However, there is some evidence that through the mergansers, especially the Smew, the duck tribe is con- nected with the diving birds: cormorants, loons, and grebes. Forbes associated the ducks with the grebes and the divers, while Eimer and Fickert, basing their conclu- sions upon the phylogeny of color and color-pattern, connect the Smew with the loons, and the Torrent Ducks with the grebes; but these findings may simply mean parallel development without close relationship. Gadow regarded the ducks and their allies as the rather slightly modified descend- ants of the same group of which the penguins, the pelicans, the divers, and the grebes are highly specialized forms. Huxley, working from the arrangement of the palatal bones, placed this order at the head of his desmognathous, or bridged-palate series, followed by the flamingoes, the herons and their allies, and the pelicans and their allies. The rest of the desmog- nathous birds, including the birds of prey, the owls, the parrots, and most of the picarian birds (puff-birds, barbets, toucans, and woodpeckers), appear to belong to a different series. Mitchell has studied our group carefully from the standpoint of the intestinal tract, and thinks that the gooselike birds should be separated from the screamers. He finds the Smew very peculiar and different from all other geese and ducks. Fiirbringer, Newton, Shufeldt, Beddard, Sclater, and Stejneger have all contrib- uted to our knowledge of this subject. A few years ago a distinguished paleontologist was quoted as saying that from the tertiary deposits some fifteen thousand mammals and six thousand reptiles have been described, but only fifteen birds! Bird bones are more easily destroyed by time, and the creatures themselves are far less likely to meet their end in caves, quick- sands, and other such places, where so many mammals, fortunately for us, have been preserved. Altogether, we have every reason to believe that many intermediate 6 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS forms which combined the characters of the goose and duck tribe, the flamingoes, the pelicans, cormorants, and their allies, the storks and herons, and the hawks, once existed. The extinction of these primitive forms leaves us very much in the dark as to their inter-relationships, but a few points have been brought out by the discovery of fossils. In the Pleistocene and Recent deposits in Oregon are found many species which still exist, besides a huge extinct goose, Anser condoni, and a gigantic swan. Fossil swans have also been found in other parts of the world. The Pleistocene of New Zealand has yielded a huge flightless, gooselike bird, Cnemiornis calcitrans, which has several characters in common with the present-day Cape Barren Goose, and has been placed in the same subfamily. It seems to have been exterminated quite recently, perhaps at the same time as the Moa. Fossil geese belonging to the existing genus Anser have been found in the upper Miocene and Pliocene strata in various parts of Europe. Chenornis, in the mid- Miocene, is a fossil duck which is said to have affinities with other groups, possibly _ the petrel, pelican, and tropic-bird families. There are many other fossil ducks of existing or allied genera from Europe and the United States in Miocene and Pleisto- cene, but curiously enough no fossil mergansers have been brought to light, which may point to a recent origin for these fish-eaters. An entirely distinct family of anserine birds, the Gastornithide, have been dis- covered in the Eocene of France and England. Gastornis, one of the genera in this family, was a huge gooselike fowl as large as an ostrich, and even considered by some as allied to the ostriches. One very peculiar thing about these huge birds was that the sutures of the skull did not close with age, but remained open throughout life. In other strata there are fossils which show some affinity to anserine birds, but the relationship is very vague. Considering the Anseres as a suborder, containing one family, Anatide, the swans, geese, and ducks, we must now ask how we are to divide them further, not only for our own convenience, but in order to show as much as possible the closer relationships. Almost any child can tell a swan, and few mistakes are possible either with the true geese or the true ducks, but we have to consider subfamilies and genera which merge into one another so gradually that a hard-and-fast line between geese and ducks is impossible to draw. The skeletal characters are by no means as marked as one would suppose, and so great an authority as Shufeldt has shown that the skull of the Whistling Swan, apart from size, has no characters to distinguish it from that of the Canada Goose. Indeed this goose is so much like a Mallard in the skull form that osteologically no fixed line can be drawn. We have to take into account the number of vertebre, the general appearance and proportions, and even the habits. The first subfamily of the Anatide comprises the swans, or Cygnine, easily dis- INTRODUCTION Y tinguished by their long necks, which actually have more vertebre than the necks of geese, and by other characters of less importance. Some swans show most re- markable convolutions of the trachea. The Semipalmated Goose, Anseranas semi- palmata, is usually placed next to the swans in a subfamily of its own (Anseranatine). The third subfamily consists of the Spur-wings, Plectropterine, a very heterogene- ous group, which is usually placed next to the swans. Its members are included in this work because it contains various species, such as the Muscovy, the Comb Ducks and the Goose Teal (Nettapus), which ordinarily come under the category of ducks. The constitution of this group is open to much speculation. There is no doubt that some of its genera, as arranged by Salvadori, should be removed and placed nearer the true ducks. I have considered it as composed of the same genera as Salvadori in his Catalogue of Birds, except that I have taken out the Mandarin and Carolina Ducks and placed them at the end of the true ducks, as they now appear in the Check-List of the American Ornithologists’ Union, The Spur-wing subfamily are birds with rather long tails, the feathers of which are broad and rounded at the tips. The upper parts are mostly glossy and the hind toe is long. These ducks inhabit the tropics of both the Old and the New Worlds and have arboreal habits. The subfamily Cereopsine, represented by only one living species, the Cape Bar- ren Goose of Australia, also includes the great extinct New Zealand Goose, Cnemi- ornis calcitrans, mentioned above. We may place the true geese, Anserine, next in order, and among them should perhaps be included the Swan Goose (Coscoroba), although its exact position is still doubtful, and it may be nothing more than a huge duck related to the Sheldrakes, and possibly to the Tree Ducks. These Anserine differ from the swans in having the neck always shorter than the body, and in having the front of the tarsus covered with small hexagonal, instead of narrow, scales. They differ from the last subfamily by the absence of a cere. The Chenonettine are another subfamily typified by the brant geese of the pampas of South America. This subfamily has not been considered among the ducks and is probably nearer to the Brant than to the true ducks. It has received various posi- tions in schemes of classification. The Tree Ducks, Dendrocygnine, are often placed among the true ducks, but I believe they well deserve to rank as a subfamily by themselves, a position which Shufeldt assigned to them in his anatomy of the group. They are defined by that au- thority as arboricole ducks, with very long legs, the tibio-tarsi more or less denuded, the middle toe considerably more than one third the length of the tarsus, and the thece of the leg and tarso-metatarsus reticulated. The orbits of the cranium are completely surrounded by bone, and there are but seventeen cervical vertebre. Morphologically they are nearer to the ducks than to the swans and geese, and they 8 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS form a very compact and sharply differentiated group which has been included in this work. We now come to the ducks themselves, the Anatine, about which there can be little confusion. They are headed by the Sheldrakes of the Old World, birds which show very distinct gooselike characteristics, especially in their habits; and it is pos- sible that at some future time they may be relegated to a subfamily by themselves. The true surface-feeding, or river ducks, of the genus Anas, are the more typical members of the Anatine. The diving, bay, or sea ducks, subfamily Fuliguline, typified by the Pochards and Scaups, form a more or less natural group, whose members are distinguished not only by different habits and a less elegant form, but by having the hind toe broadly lobed or webbed. The legs are placed somewhat farther back, and the gait is wad- dling. The curious Black-headed Duck (Heteronetta) of South America forms a con- necting link between the surface-feeding and the diving ducks. The spiny-tailed ducks, subfamily Erismaturine, include the Ruddy Duck group, and the Musk Duck of Australia. These stiff-tailed diving ducks are characterized not only by their cormorant-like tails, but by their thick-appearing necks, which in the male sex contain curious tracheal air-sacs. The Torrent, or Mountain Ducks, Merganettine, are very peculiar, grebelike divers, mostly confined to high Andean streams, having long stiff tails, and a bill like that of a Merganser, but lacking the serrations. The Mergine, the last subfamily of the swan, goose, and duck tribe, contains the familiar fish-eating ducks (Mergansers) with their characteristic toothed bills, slen- der bodies, and fish-eating habits. The classification of the great suborder Anseres or lamellirostral swimmers may be summed up in the following scheme, which conforms very closely to the one sug- gested by Shufeldt in 1914. Suborder Families Subfamilies . Cygnine — Swans . Anseranatine — Semipalmated goose . Plectropterine — Spur-wing family . Cereopsine — Cape Barren Goose . Anserine — True geese . Chenonettine — Australian Maned Goose . Dendrocygnine — Tree Ducks . Anatine — Fresh-water, or river, ducks . Fuliguline — Diving ducks . Erismaturine — Spiny-tailed ducks . Merganettine — Torrent, or Mountain, Ducks 12. Mergine — Mergansers, or sawbills Anseres Anatid@........ (Lamellirostres) —_ me Oo OS CO 8 DO & OO °O = Gastornithide (extinct) INTRODUCTION 9 We have seen how meager are the findings in geological strata, and it follows that any opinion as to the relative age of the different groups of Anseres becomes little more than a guess. The evidence points to a greater geological age for the geese and swans than for the ducks; but all we can say is that geese and swans earlier than the Miocene and Pleistocene ages were different from the geese of to-day. The Tree Ducks may represent, and indeed they suggest, older and less specialized forms, as do the Spur-wings, but there is really no evidence upon which to base such a statement. We can say, however, that the true surface-feeding ducks have not been found except in very recent geological strata, while it is quite remarkable that no fossil Merganser, save those belonging to present species, has been brought to light. The Mergansers and possibly the Torrent Ducks may be thought of as more recently specialized than the swans and geese. Any linear scheme of arrangement is unsatisfactory, for it cannot in the least represent the phylogeny of a group. The order in which the ducks are placed is, after all, almost purely arbitrary. We begin with the Spur-wing family, which many writers will regard as not ducks at all, and work through the more or less anserine ducks to ducks of the Mallard type. The Mallard usually heads the list of surface- feeding or river ducks, for no particular reason, except that it is a well-known species. It might be just as well to start with the Carolina and Mandarin Ducks. The river ducks do, however, form a very compact series, and most of them prob- ably produce fertile hybrids in crosses. They may be considered in one or two genera or split into fifteen or twenty genera, according to the taste of the sys- tematist. The diving ducks are more diverse than the fresh-water ducks, but the two sub- families merge into each other through certain aberrant types like Heteronetta, and anatomically there are almost no important characters to separate them. Those groups which we consider last among the ducks and geese are placed at the end merely as a matter of convenience, and they leave a gap into which it is difficult to fit any other order of birds. SCOPE OF THE WORK Ir has been my purpose to bring together from many scattered sources of informa- tion as complete an account of the life-histories of the various ducks and ducklike birds as could be utilized in convenient form. The true geese and the swans have not been included. I have tried always to give correct references for all statements made, and it is the intention to publish a bibliography at the end of the last volume. Where scattered notes are quoted, a complete reference is usually given in the text, but when the reference is to a larger work, the writer’s last name and the date are given, which makes it necessary to consult the bibliography. My own experiences have been used in great part to check up the observation of 10 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS others, but I lay no claim to much original material. With certain species, however, I am very familiar, both in the wild state and in confinement. It is almost impossible to realize the enormous amount of literature which has accumulated around this group of birds. Practically there is no end to it, for it fills the pages of hundreds of local sportsmen’s journals all over the world, besides the hundreds of scientific and popular periodicals devoted to natural history. The in- formation of any one person can, therefore, never be complete. Very often, too, extremely interesting accounts can barely be referred to for lack of space. A volume might easily be written upon each of the common palearctic or nearctic ducks, while on the other hand there is almost no information about many sedentary and island species. Among the little-known birds may be mentioned the Guam Island Duck, Salvadori’s Duck from New Guinea, and the Brazilian and Auckland Island Mer- gansers. Since Volume 27 of the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum was published (Salvadori, 1895), the number of species of ducks belonging to the five great sub- families Plectropterine, Anatine, Fuliguline, Erismaturine, and Merging has scarcely changed at all. Latin names have come and gone with such amazing frequency that only the specialist can attempt to follow them. Genera almost too numerous to men- tion have been suggested, but the tendency is now to make almost all the true sur- face-feeding ducks congeneric. This appears to me the wisest course, for members of the whole genus Anas, as here considered, are probably not only potentially fertile inter se, but would produce fertile hybrids, cquld the proper conditions be brought about. The Green-winged Teals, for instance, are just as typically surface-feeding ducks as are the larger Mallard-like ducks, both in anatomy and in habits. The Widg- eons form a very obvious and sharply defined little group, and yet it would be easy enough to make a different genus out of each of the three species on anatomical characters alone (trachea, for instance). Indeed, Mr. Alexander Wetmore, who has paid particular attention to skull characters in ducks, has shown me rather well- marked differences in the skulls of closely related species of ducks, so that when all is said and done we get back very nearly where we started from and acknowledge that present classification, no matter what it is based on, is largely a matter of con- venience, and subject to varying opinion. A large number of races (subspecies) of ducks have been described in recent years, mostly based upon size characters, and these will be considered at the end of the account of the several species. The species will first be taken up as a unit; its descrip- tion, its distribution, and its habits. GENERAL DISTRIBUTION Ducks are found throughout the world, wherever fresh- or salt-water feeding grounds are available, but certain regions are far richer than others, both in species INTRODUCTION 11 and in numbers of individuals. In a general way it may be said that those parts of the temperate and subarctic regions embracing huge tracts of poorly drained plains and steppes are the true home of the duck tribe. The great inland breeding grounds of western North America support some twenty-three species, whereas the rocky barrens that lie east of Hudson Bay support regularly only three or four. In the same way the huge wild-fowl reservoir extending from eastern Germany through Finland, Russia, and Siberia supports great hordes of water-fowl that winter as far south as the White Nile, Abyssinia, and East Africa on the west, and northern India and China on the east. The North American ducks may be said to winter from the northern States as far south as the Great Central Valley of Mexico, but the bulk of them remain along the South Atlantic and Gulf Coasts and the central valleys of California. The tropical rain forests, all over the world, are poor in the number of duck spe- cies. The Congo and the Amazon basins are noteworthy in that respect, for they support no true surface-feeding ducks and only a few species belonging to gooselike genera that have mostly arboreal habits. Polynesia and Melanesia are likewise re- markable for the extreme poverty of their duck fauna; for throughout all the Pacific Islands we have only one true, wide-ranging species, the Australian Black Duck, while a few straggling migrants are attracted from Alaska and the Chinese mainland. On one or two oceanic islands are found isolated species, such as the Hawaiian Duck, the Laysan Teal, the Coues’ Gadwall, and the Guam Island Duck. In India and Burma are found a goodly variety of ducks, part migrants and part isolated and local species, such as the curious Pink-headed Duck and the little-known White-winged Wood Duck. Coming now to the southern continents, we find the ducks very richly represented in southern South America, south of the rain forests, as well as in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. In all this Southern Hemisphere, of less rigorous win- ters, but with well-defined wet and dry seasons, migrations are not so marked, nor so clearly understood as in the north; the breeding season extends over a longer period, and all species tend to become dependent on local water conditions and therefore more erratic in their movements. They may even breed over their whole range, a condition very seldom seen among the northern ducks. Southern South America supports twenty-eight species of ducks, and is note- worthy for its richness in teal. Those species which extend into the lakes of the high Andean plateau have tended to become local, to increase in size, and to form new but not very different species. In South America also we find the wholly unique semi-flightless Steamer Duck, the largest of all the ducks, while high up amid the snows on the western slopes of the Andean range, the very interesting little Mergan- ser-like Torrent Ducks, perhaps related to the grebes, which in scattered pairs occupy the streams, and are to this day little known. 12 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand are remarkable for the magnificent sheldrakes of the genera Tadorna and Casarca, and, true to its reputation for ancient or specialized types, Australia supports the most peculiar and aberrant members of the duck tribe — the flightless duck of Auckland Island, the Musk Duck, the Blue Mountain Duck, and the Pink-eared and Freckled Ducks. South Africa, on the other hand, contains no very peculiar types. Looking at the duck family from the standpoint of far northern ranges, we find the Eiders and their near relatives characteristic of the arctic regions the world around. The Old-squaw and the King Eider are the two species which extend the farthest north, and the whole family of Eiders are all far northern breeders, while even their winter distribution is chiefly arctic, or at least well beyond that of most other species. The holarctic Ducks and Teal of the Northern Hemisphere once bred in larger numbers over the southern part of their present ranges, but settlement and drainage has greatly affected them in both western Europe and the United States. They naturally tend, however, to breed well south of the arctic salt-water ducks, while some of them — the Spoonbills, Blue-winged Teals, Ruddy Ducks, etc. — can breed even in the south temperate or tropical regions. The true diving ducks, the Pochards and Scaups, occupy an intermediate breeding range, and are not charac- teristic of arctic areas. True sea ducks, like the Scoters and Eiders, are not found in the Southern Hem- isphere and range only about as far south in winter as latitude 35° in North America and 42° in Europe. The typical ducks of the tropics are the Tree Ducks, which are found all around the world. Two species, the White-faced and the Fulvous, are remarkable for their distribution, which includes both Africa and South America, and in the ease of the latter even India and Burma. The members of this genus are typically sedentary, but real migrations do occur at the limits of their ranges, while the coming of the rains gives rise to many local movements which are too intricate to be easily fol- lowed. WIDE-RANGING Spectres. Such cosmopolitan species as the Pintail, Mallard, Shoveller, and Gadwall extend around the world in the Northern Hemisphere, and vary either not at all or in a very minor degree, giving rise to races such as the Greenland Mallard and the American Pintail. Among the sea ducks, the Long-tailed (Harelda glacialis) is the most abundant, and is another good example of a holarctic bird. CoNFINED, OR INSULAR, Spectres. The best example is the Laysan Teal, whose sole habitat is a small pond on Laysan Isle in the mid-Pacific Ocean. After the Japanese bird raids in 1909, this species was reduced to twelve or thirteen individuals. An- INTRODUCTION 13 other island race, the Coues’ Gadwall, is confined to two small islands of the Fanning group. Ten other species are confined to islands. Distributions are taken up in detail under the account of each species, and maps are used to give a graphic picture of the range. These maps should be considered as giving only a general picture, for many large areas have to be included which are not favorable to water-birds for various reasons. Some of these features are deserts or mountain ranges, or regions of deep lakes with steep rocky shores. Micration. We understand only a few facts in regard to migration. We know that certain species arrive in certain regions at certain times, but we do not know the extent of territory over which the individual passes in a given year. We know that there are summer movements, males collecting in definite areas after leaving the females, and banded birds have recently brought out the fact that there are summer dispersals, often in a northerly direction, about which we know almost nothing. We commonly think of the ducks migrating south in autumn, and this of course is true, but Allan Brooks has told me of extensive movements of male Scoters on the fourth of July, along the Pacific Coast. Ducks banded at Bear River, Utah, have been taken all over the West, from Cali- fornia to the Mississippi Valley, and north to the Canadian line. There are no simple north and south migration routes, but as far as we can see an endless complexity of movement. It is best in studying this subject to admit at the start that our picture of it is only the crudest beginning, nor do we know anything of the “sixth sense” that keeps the bird oriented, ‘“‘lone wandering but not lost,”’ as Bryant has so beautifully expressed it. The subject is complicated in so many ways that the species, the sex, and per- haps even the exact age, must be taken into account, and the direction of movement is not necessarily the same for the same species in different localities. For instance, many western-bred Canadian ducks bear east and south to reach the Atlantic sea- board, but they do not necessarily return by the same road, nor do all individuals in a given breeding locality occupy the same winter quarters. Western-bred ducks banded at Lake Erie on migration do not all go to the Atlantic seaboard; some con- tinue south to the Gulf Coast. Then again we know that the White-winged Scoter, whose breeding area is restricted to a rather small section west of James and Hudson Bays, migrates both to the east and to the west, and although it does not breed on either coast, enormous numbers of non-breeders spend the summer on the Atlantic and Pacific shores. In Europe records from banded Mallards show a tendency for those nesting in Sweden, East Prussia, and Kurland, to migrate southwest in autumn, and with ~ Pintails there is a definite interchange between the west coast of Denmark and Fin- 14 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS land. Teal banded in Denmark spread out later to southwestern England, Ireland, the west coast of France, Holland, southern Spain, and northern Italy. A European Widgeon banded in England in 1915 was taken on the north coast of the Caspian Sea in 1918, which shows a very remarkable east and west dispersal. Most interesting, too, is the distribution of the sexes in migration. The true geese migrate in pairs and families. Not so with the ducks, for it is quite certain that among most of our common ducks the females and young start first and go farther, while the males come later, and these males may even stay in a more northerly win- ter area. This applies also to the Mergansers. On the other hand, the old males of the Scoters migrate very early, even in July and August, although they do not neces- sarily go farther south. In some cases, at least, with birds of this genus (Oidemia), the females and young, who come later, pass the males and winter south of them. With the Barrow’s Golden-eye, the males disappear entirely as soon as the females lay their eggs, and leave the mountain streams of British Columbia for regions un- known. In a great many of the surface-feeding ducks the males assemble at certain points and begin to moult as soon as incubation has begun. Then there is another phase of this most interesting subject. In a given locality there may be individuals of a certain species that are sedentary, and others that arrive from distant breeding-grounds in the winter to swell the ranks. Or it may be that locally bred ducks depart before their northern-bred brothers arrive, as we see in the case of our own Black Ducks. We may even picture to ourselves cases in which breeding groups from different localities are continually overlapping each other on migration, no one group moving very far in a southerly or northerly direction, al- though the movement of the species as a whole may be considerable. Again, it is by no means sure that a northern-bred group within a species will move only a short distance to the south. I am quite certain that our northern- and western-bred Black Ducks, the so-called Red-legs, actually are found farther to the south in winter than the ducks bred along the coast of New England and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Certain well-favored spots, which are cool enough for nesting, and yet have open water in winter, harbor small sedentary groups within a species. Thus Mallards, and apparently the same individuals, remain throughout the year in certain parts of Alaska and our Rocky Mountains. In North America many ducks are forced to travel two or three thousand miles, from the Athabasca Delta to North Carolina, let us say; but in western Europe, on account of a more uniform climate, warmer winters and cooler summers, there is no necessity for so extended a journey, and we find a tendency to shorter migrations, and more sedentary groups within the species. \The Mallard is as good an example as any. As we move farther east, however, we reach countries where there are very cold winters and hot summers and conditions are more like those in North America. Young Mallards bred in England have been extensively banded there; many of INTRODUCTION 15 them have been shot and the bands recovered. The results show that this group of birds is almost sedentary, but the interesting point is that it is not absolutely so, for one or two per cent of them have turned up, and apparently as breeding birds, in places as far off as East Prussia. So we see another reason why local breeding groups do not become differentiated into subspecies, for they are not absolutely local and a certain leakage or interchange with other groups appears to take place regularly. I have said that migration back to the breeding area is not always over the same course by which the birds departed. Most of our North American ducks breed in the great area from the Dakotas, through Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, to the Athabasca and Mackenzie Valleys. From here they radiate in many directions. One great group of Mallards, Teal, Widgeon, and diving ducks strikes east, and, part of them collecting at certain spots in the Great Lakes region, eventually arrive on the Atlantic Coast, mostly south and west of New England. Some of these birds, particularly the Mallard, gradually withdraw from the sounds of North Carolina during the winter, so that after the middle of January they are almost absent, and these birds undoubtedly go north by a more inland route. In the Mississippi Valley there is a greater movement north in the spring than south in the autumn, while on the North Atlantic coast certain species are practically absent in the spring in the same places where they are common in the early autumn. We must picture, there- fore, a great circular journey, which no doubt was first developed through necessity, for the States of the Mississippi Valley are often so dry in October that only a limited number of ducks can stop there, while in March and April the great rivers are in full flood and provide optimum conditions for all water-loving birds. These circular journeys are not confined to ducks. They are well seen in the Golden Plover and in the Eskimo Curlew, although of course these waders continue much farther south than do our ducks. Certain warblers also have a different route in the spring. It is true in a general way that the Anatide@ are less bound by a hard-and-fast time- sense during migration than many of the passerine birds, and yet they are more accurate in their dates of arrival than is commonly supposed, for the mere fact of their non-appearance at a given point does not mean that the species is tardy. It is quite as likely that they failed to stop because water conditions were not suitable, or because meteorological conditions were so favorable that the flight kept to sea, or made the journey without breaks. Arrival of the Lesser Scaup in eastern Massachu- setts is very regular. In my own records October 6th was earliest, and October 19th the latest, in twenty years. The average is October 12th, and as a matter of fact, in spite of small numbers, these ducks arrived on that date for six of the twenty years. The latitude at which a species winters is, of course, dependent to a great extent upon the severity of the weather. On our Atlantic Coast, the great sounds where diving ducks commonly winter may be completely closed with ice, and when this happens there is a secondary flight, perhaps for only a short distance, but possibly 16 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS as far as Florida or even Cuba. The winter dispersal of diving ducks, Scaup, Canvas- back, and Red-head, is markedly irregular, and apparently delicately adjusted to crops of various water-plants, which vary greatly in luxuriance from year to year. In any famous ducking locality the proportion of the different species varies, sug- gesting factors of which we are in complete ignorance. Shooting-records will show great Teal, Mallard, or Widgeon years; still, as a rule, very big years show an abun- dance of several species. In my own region, which is just east of the usual range of western-bred migrants, there occasionally comes a season when Mallards, Red-heads, or Ruddies are much more numerous than usual. This points to the fact that routes are not absolutely fixed. Stray birds taken at points distant from the usual range are nearly always the young of the year. The height at which the duck tribe travels and the speed of migration are subjects often discussed, but it is impossible to lay down any hard-and-fast laws. It seems to be generally agreed that older observers exaggerated the height at which birds usually migrate. Meinertzhagen concludes that migrants are seldom found at over five thousand feet altitude, and that the bulk of bird movement is conducted below three thousand feet. Almost any sportsman knows that geese and ducks make their di- urnal as well as their migratory flights much higher in fine than in foul weather. Wild-fowl are seen migrating at their greatest height on clear frosty mornings with light north or northwest winds. At these times such large birds as Canada Geese may travel so far above the earth as to be difficult to see, probably over four thou- sand feet, and it is possible that many ducks pass across the zenith at such a height as to be invisible, say above thirty-five hundred feet. But any sort of bad weather changes all this, and low clouds, heavy head winds, sleet, or snow will bring the migration close to the earth. Under really adverse conditions geese and ducks may be seen struggling along at scarce a gunshot above the ground. The time of the day probably makes little difference to most ducks, and in this they differ widely from our passerine birds. Active migration takes place on favor- able nights as well as by day, but I have often thought that the first part of the night was a period of more activity than the last part, to be followed by renewed movement just before morning and during the first hour after dawn. It is very remarkable that enormous numbers of one species often arrive at a favor- ite stopping-place almost at the same time. Mr. Frank Benson tells me that on the 25th of October, 1920, he witnessed in broad daylight between the hours of eight and ten in the morning the arrival of thousands upon thousands of Red-heads and Can- vas-backs which before that day were entirely absent. This was at Long Point, Lake Erie. They first appeared in long wavering lines, flock after flock in rapid succession at a height of perhaps twenty-five hundred to three thousand feet. When directly over the marsh, they “let go” and came down at terrific speed, so that in a very INTRODUCTION 17 short time the marsh was swarming with them. Few sportsmen have been lucky enough to see one of these great arrivals from the North. Some species, like the Ruddy, absolutely refuse to travel by day, and a migrating flock which arrives during the night will not leave until after dark the next night. I have seen migrating Ruddies come into a pond just at the first streak of dawn, but never later. Scoters perform leisurely journeys along the coast during morning and evening hours, and sometimes all day, but they very seldom cross over land except at night, or extremely early in the morning, sharing the same fear of land as the Ruddy. It is impossible to get an accurate idea of the distance which may be traveled by the individual flock without rest. If the Canada Goose be any criterion, it seems to me very likely that many ducks may travel a thousand miles without a stop, if the conditions are suitable, but I know of no observation that would throw much light on this point. It remains purely a speculation. We know that geese will not stop at New England points during very favorable weather, and presumably perform their entire flight from New Brunswick or Nova Scotia to Virginia at one journey. Swans probably make even longer journeys, and it is doubtful whether the bulk of the Red-heads and Canvas-backs that tarry on the north shore of Lake Erie make an- other stop until they reach Virginia and North Carolina. It would be interesting to know more about feeding habits during migration. I think it will be found that ducks while under the active impulse to move care very little about filling their crops. Many flocks that I have noticed merely rest and wash up for an hour or two, and show no desire to feed. The Pintails that winter on the Hawaiian Isles come probably from the Alaskan Peninsula or the Aleutian Islands and cover a distance of twenty-two hundred miles without food, although of course they can rest if the sea is not too rough. PLUMAGE Auruoucu the patterns of ducks are various, and the colors run through the whole gamut of the rainbow, yet most species, even those not at all closely related, show a ducklike general plan — that is, a head and neck color, a breast color, and a wing speculum. However, some, as the Scoters, are plain or self-colored all over, while others, as the extraordinary Freckled Duck of Australia, have an entirely unduck- like coloring and no wing speculum. The plumage is usually more varied in the male, but in at least fifty-three cases the sexes are alike, or differ only in size or in slightly duller coloration. In some, as in the Torrent Ducks, the female is brilliantly but differently colored from the male, and the same thing may be seen in the Shel- drakes of Australia and New Zealand. In the Paradise Sheldrake, the first young plumage is much more like that of the male than that of the female, so that females actually pass through a sort of male phase before they reach maturity. 18 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS It is fitting here to say something about color-patterns in the group as a whole. Dr. G. M. Allen has shown that in Teal Ducks we find six of what he calls primary color patches. These are a median crown patch, two ear patches, two neck patches, two shoulder patches, two side patches, and two rump patches. A reduction in the color strength of one of these patches, either by partial albinism, or during the evo- lution of a new species, has in many cases demonstrated the breaks between these color areas. The interesting thing about this arrangement of epidermal colors is the fact that very likely it is of a fundamental nature, and applies not only to birds but to mammals. Mow tts. In all the typical arctic and Northern-Hemisphere ducks, of both the New and the Old World, the adults of both sexes have two annual moults. Pairs arrive at the breeding area in full plumage. Soon after the females commence to incubate, the males retire and begin to change to the “eclipse” plumage. During the eclipse, which is a much plainer and less-differentiated dress that remains in its full development for only about three or four weeks, the primary wing-feathers as well as the tail-feathers are moulted, and the bird becomes flightless. These feathers are shed only once during the year, and always earlier in the male than in the female. The female does not moult until the young are more or less able to care for them- selves, and thus she is some four or five weeks behind the male in this respect, an adaptation obviously of great value. In assuming the winter dress again, the old males are the first to change, and in some species, as, for instance, the Mallard, the specimens in full dress may be found by early October. In most of the northern ducks, however, the winter plumage is hardly perfect before November, and, in birds of the year, not before December or later. In the Shoveller and the Blue-winged Teal perfect plumage does not come before early spring. The typical diving ducks, Pochards and Scaups, have their moults a good deal like those of the surface-feeders, but the eclipse is not so perfect, and young birds do not reach maturity until their second winter. Some of them do not breed the first year. The Ruddy Duck is an exception to the above, as his true red breeding-plumage is not assumed until March or April, and lasts only a short time, through the sum- mer instead of the winter. Thus he retains his eclipse plumage from August (for males stay with the females and young and moult late) all through the later summer, autumn, and winter. The species in which the sexes have similar and dull coloring do not, of course, have an eclipse, but they do have a double moult. None of the males of South Amer- ican or Australian ducks have an eclipse, the significance of which is not clear at present. INTRODUCTION 19 It is interesting, but perhaps not very productive, to inquire the reasons why Na- ture has deprived the male of his gorgeous feathers during midsummer, for the eclipse of ducks is almost unique in the avian world, most bird families carrying a brilliant plumage throughout the whole summer and not acquiring it again until spring. It is commonly said that the eclipse is a wise provision of Nature to render the male less conspicuous at the time when he is rendered helpless during moult. It is perhaps just as easy to say that the eclipse is merely a periodic repetition of an earlier type of plumage, and the male becomes helpless, shedding his quills, because he gets along very well at this season of profusion without flying about in search of food. However, it seems to me that an entirely different view might be taken, based on the recent castration work of Goodale, Pearl, Boring, and others. We now know that male plumage in birds is not affected by removal of the sex organs, while female plumage is more or less changed to male when ovaries are removed or cease to func- tion through embryonic conditions, old age, or disease. But the power to acquire an eclipse is dependent upon the male sex organs as Goodale showed. Other sex char- acters — spurs, wattles, voice, and behavior — are not so clearly dependent on the secretion of sex glands. It is apparent, then, that the power to produce male plum- age is carried by the female, and that the female sex glands secrete a substance which inhibits or modifies “maleless.”” Now, we do not have to assume that sex plumage in the male duck is a recent development. On the contrary, it is quite as likely that it is a primitive character and antedates the somber female plumage, and birds like the Florida Duck and the Hawaiian Duck may have arisen from a Mallard-like type through suppression of the male plumage. This throws a very different light on the whole subject. The eclipse may be a recent plumage developed through ne- cessity for protection, while the brilliant winter dress persists at a time of year when it is of little disadvantage, and the birds are well able to look after themselves. In the same way the so-called protective coloring of the female may be recent, in an evolutionary sense, and due to some sort of natural selection, as Wallace long ago pointed out. The eclipse, therefore, may not be a return to a primitive condition at all, but may represent a highly specialized dress. And in this connection we must notice that by nature it is not a return to a female plumage so much as it is to a modi- fied male plumage. I once kept a male Mallard in a cold room all summer, and in this way delayed his moult. When he was brought out into normal surroundings in September, he immediately moulted, but went directly into his full dress, omitting his eclipse. We have then the same anomaly that occurs in castrated ducks —a failure to assume the eclipse. It seems, therefore, that this latter plumage is depend- ent, not only on the presence of the male sex organs, but on their function during the period of breeding activity. A curious anomaly, which I have seen in the Caro- lina Duck is the retention of a perfect eclipse plumage in the male throughout the entire year. 20 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS Most ornithologists would admit, I think, that the little Hawaiian Duck is nothing more than a degenerate Mallard, the males having lost most of their gay coloring. It has, however, kept certain male characters, and some specimens look a good deal like a Mallard in summer, or eclipse, dress. We now come to a large category of ducks that do not assume full dress until more than one year old. The Harlequin male does not attain maturity for fourteen months, and the Eiders not until their fourth year. The curious Steamer Duck does not reach maturity until at least over two years of age, and possibly not until much later. Many of the Pochards and Scaups are not really in perfect feather until eighteen or twenty months of age — and their first eclipse is somewhat different from later ones. It may be worth while to make some general remarks on the sequence of moults in ducks, because this subject will not be freely considered under the different species. In the seventeenth century Willoughby and Ray offered their quaint theory of the causes of moult in birds and perhaps, after all, we have not pushed the knowledge of this subject so far that we can afford to laugh overmuch. They supposed “that there is the same cause of the casting the feathers in birds, that there is of the falling off of the hair in men and other animals upon recovery from a fever or other disease, or upon refection after long abstinence. For in cock-birds the heat and turgency of lust, is, as it were, a kind of fever, and so in the spring time their bodies being ex- hausted by the frequent use of venery, they become lean; but in the hens the time of sitting and bringing up their young answers to a disease or long abstinence, for at that time they moderate themselves by hunger and continual labor, etc., ete.” The first true feathers appear on the scapulars and tail, the last parts to retain down being the head and neck and under side. The first plumage, usually called the juvenile plumage, is attained at the age of eight or ten weeks, and resembles in a marked degree that of the adult female, although it may be distinguished by various minor differences. The sexes of young ducks can usually be separated when they have reached this stage (first or juvenile plumage), but they resemble each other closely. The first tail-feathers are blunt at the tips. First let us follow the male of what we may call a typical palearctiec duck (Mal- lard, Teal, Widgeon, and others). During the first winter the male may or may not attain full adult plumage; at any rate, there is a nearly complete moult of body feathers, usually the whole tail (sometimes only the central feathers), between Sep- tember and April. Note here that the juvenile flight-feathers are always retained, and rather frequently the feathers of the back and rump and, perhaps, some wing- coverts. In some species feathers of the lower breast and abdomen are not renewed during the first winter. The first eclipse plumage, which is assumed in June or July, may or may not re- semble the adult eclipse, but in the typical cases it is the same, and the year-old INTRODUCTION Q1 male cannot be told from the two- or three-year-old bird. The eclipse is acquired by a nearly complete body and tail moult, usually followed at varying intervals by the single annual moult of the primaries (flight-feathers), the outer secondaries, and some or all of the wing-coverts. The male is then flightless for a time. In certain species the pre-eclipse moult is not nearly so complete as this, and may not involve the back, rump, abdomen, or tail. Sometimes the central tail-feathers are shed before the outer ones, as in the Mallard. Usually there is no period of actual stasis in the moulting process throughout the entire summer, for the pre- and post-eclipse moults merge into one another. In some species, however (Ruddy Duck, Blue-winged Teal), eclipse plumage is retained for several months. With the assumption of the new flight-feathers the eclipse may be said to be perfect, although it is often practically so before these flight-feathers are shed. The adult male winter plumage is assumed during the second autumn by another (post-eclipse) moult which affects the body-feathers, tail and innermost secondaries, and is often completed by November or December. After this there are two annual moults one of which includes the flight-feathers. To return now to the female. Her down plumage is the exact counterpart of that of the males and her first or juvenile plumage is assumed in the same manner. Usu- ally a sexual difference appears in the first plumage which may be appreciated by any one who has handled many specimens, but in some species no differences be- tween male and female can be detected at this time. During the first autumn and winter the young female goes through a moult of the body-feathers, and sooner or later of the tail-feathers, becoming by spring (sometimes by early winter) difficult to tell from a fully adult female, although the juvenile wing is still present. Now comes the difference in the moulting periods of the sexes. The female prepares her- self for the breeding season by a nearly complete body moult, which may take place at any time between autumn and late spring, but occurs typically from February to May. This is a rather slow and easily overlooked moult, which affects most body- feathers, the down, some or all of the tail-feathers, the inner secondaries, perhaps some wing-coverts, but never the primaries or outer secondaries. This moult leads to what may be termed the breeding or summer plumage of the female, a plumage slightly, sometimes strikingly different from the autumn-winter (eclipse of Annie Jackson) plumage. As we shall see, this breeding plumage is retained, although often in a very ragged and faded condition, until the maternal duties are accom- plished, when it is followed by a complete moult in late summer or early autumn affecting the whole body and the wings. Apparently the female does not always become flightless, as does the male, but on this point more information is needed. The typical cycle for the female is now completed, and we see that the two moults in this sex, although they are chronologically delayed in comparison with those of the 22 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS male, are not so different as appears at first sight. Because they extend over a long period and are easily overlooked, they have been misunderstood. These general remarks on the subject of moult can be interpreted only as applying to the common northern migrant ducks. We shall see that moult in the tropical and southern hemisphere species is very irregular and ill-defined. In all those species where maturity is not reached the first year (Eiders and Scoters), the plumage changes and moults are still more complex. Then, too, it must not be forgotten that there is a very remarkable amount of variation in the time at which different stages of plumage are reached, even in the same species in similar localities. It is often possible to find forward young of the year in nearly complete maturity by early win- ter, while others, for reasons little understood, may not reach such a stage until late winter or early spring. The whole subject of the sequence of plumage and moults in the duck tribe almost deserves a monograph to do it justice. The main facts have been well worked out by Annie Jackson (Meinertzhagen) and E. L. Schidler. FLIGHT Wao can describe the flight of wild-fowl to one who has never seen it — those great flocks driving through space with perfect order and precision, conveying an idea of power and volition which the scattered, irregular, and rather aimless-looking flights of most of the smaller land birds utterly fail to give us? Nearly all ducks are rapid flyers, and there is so much diversity of opinion as to which are the fastest that it is hardly worth while, in the light of our present knowl- edge, to attempt to analyze very deeply. It is safe to say that fifty-five or sixty miles an hour can be attained by many species, and forty to fifty miles is a common speed during migration. Some of the diving ducks certainly fly faster when near the ground than the Mallard-like species. Teals seem to go by at a greater rate than Mallards, but their small size and erratic behavior make this more apparent than real. The great ease with which aéroplanes traveling at not more than seventy-five miles an hour have managed to pick up and kill ducks over the rice-fields of California makes it look as if we should have to revise our earlier conceptions of the velocity of ducks’ flight. Recent observations place the speed of ducks while migrating at from forty- four to fifty-nine miles per hour. (Meinertzhagen, Ibis, 1921.) Migrating Canada Geese travel at forty-five miles per hour. The river ducks and Teals are far more active and skillful on the wing than the shorter-winged diving ducks, Scoters, and Eiders. But speed and activity on the wing are not confined to the true ducks, for both are well developed in Nettapus (the Goose Teals), the Carolina and Mandarin Ducks, the Hooded Merganser, and others. The great Steamer Duck of antarctic America, that weighs eight or nine pounds, is apparently on the border-line in losing completely the power of flight. INTRODUCTION 23 Individuals differ in their ability to raise the body from the ground or water, and old specimens actually have slightly shorter wings than the young ones, and become even more helpless. Various attempts to separate this species into two kinds, a volant and a non-volant form, have thus far ended in failure. There is only one wholly flightless species, namely, the Auckland Island Duck. Domestication almost immediately affects the wing-muscles of wild Mallards. In two or three generations they become too lazy or too heavy to care about any long flights. Under the same conditions the male Muscovy grows so heavy that he is practically flightless, although the female remains fairly active. Most tropical and sedentary species are slower on the wing than their northern relatives. Ducks do not assume the arrow type of flock as regularly as geese. Migrating Mallards, Black Ducks, and many diving ducks fall into long wavering lines or very blunt arrows, with scattering individuals stringing along inside the arc. There is very little flock formation in wild-fowl when moving only short distances, and some species, such as the Carolina Duck, seem always to fly in irregular, compact groups. DIURNAL MOVEMENTS Ducks as a whole are naturally very active in the early morning, and again in the evening, while much feeding is done on clear moonlight nights. Persecution has greatly affected the habits of wild-fowl the world over, and it is rare now to find ducks, except in far northern breeding grounds, carrying on their daily routine with- out modification. Of course in well-protected areas before the shooting season opens, one can gain a very good idea of natural habits. The daily movements of the flock are again greatly altered during active migration. Surface-feeding ducks manage when necessary to find their food entirely by night, except under great stress of storm and frost. Diving ducks must have some period of daylight to feed, else they will eventually be driven from their wintering ground to some more favorable location. With this end in view various communities and many sportsmen’s clubs have limited shcoting to two, three, or four days each week. It appears that Pochards and Scaups will under certain conditions feed at night, and just how common this habit is remains to be found out. Golden-eyes, Scoters, and Eiders are species which appear to feed entirely by day. WARINESS Aut ducks that have survived in shot-over countries are more or less wild. Even the ridiculously tame Ruddy is susceptible of some education, especially when he keeps in large flocks. Originally all ducks must have been perfectly fearless in the presence of man, and their confidence can even now be restored, for such a species as our very highly educated Black Duck has in certain protected spots become so tame as to allow himself to be caught by the hand. All our true fresh-water ducks become 24 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS very shy under persecution; the Teals less so. But certain species show not only timidity, but perfect adaptation to a harassed existence. Of course, no matter how wild the bird, if its diurnal habits are uniform, and it flies over, or arrives at, similar points each day, it will surely eventually be killed; our Black Ducks have not only learned a great deal about man and his weapons, but have acquired the habit of taking different routes from day to day, so that they may completely baffle the shooter. All young ducks are fairly tame until shot at. I have decoyed Black Ducks suc- cessfully by simply waving a hat above the grass and giving a few quacks, but on our New England coast the same species becomes so shy as to defy almost all efforts for its capture, except when stress of weather closes part of its feeding grounds. All ducks become more “gentle” during strong winds or freezing weather. As a rule flocks on active migration are far more confiding than after they have become local- ized in some definite place for a few weeks. Thus in our New England ponds one can tell almost at a glance a flock of local, wintering ducks, that has come in from the coast for shelter during a storm, from a flock of migrants that stops here and there only for a few hours. Some island species, as the Laysan and the Georgian Teals, are still fearless in the presence of man, and in certain parts of India, where it is left alone through religious tolerance, the Ruddy Sheldrake, usually a very shy bird, becomes perfectly oblivious to human activities. Speaking broadly, the Spur-winged group are mostly wary, the Goose Teals and the Tree Ducks less so, and the Egyptian Geese and Casarcas extremely observant and very intelligent. All the Mallard-like ducks, except a few isolated species, are wild and capable of great adaptation. The diving ducks are not individually so in- telligent as the fresh-water ducks, but here again there are many differences, and the Golden-eyes are extremely wary and also unsociable with other species. None of the Scoters and Eiders can be called susceptible of much education, while all the Spiny-tailed, or Ruddy Duck, family are distinctly stupid. One cannot estimate wariness by the ease with which the birds come to decoys. Some rather tame ducks do not decoy, because they lack the instincts of sociability. SPECIAL SENSES Tuat hearing and sight and the sense of touch are highly developed in most anatine birds is recognized by every one. On the sense of smell there is such widely conflict- ing evidence that I am inclined to dismiss the subject without comment, for I cer- tainly have nothing of interest to add, except the fact that Mallard Ducks can easily detect the presence of various essential oils when placed on their food. That there is in some geese and ducks a power to detect enemies down wind under certain condi- ttons must be acknowledged. No one who has talked to the old decoy-men of Hol- INTRODUCTION 25 land and England feels confident in ruling out the possibility of a sense of smell. Nevertheless, I have hundreds of times decoyed ducks and geese directly up wind where they had plenty of time to detect my presence, without their showing any sus- picion, so that one becomes very skeptical that what has been described as a sense of smell in birds is really analogous to what we see in mammals. It has been suggested with reason that birds are provided with some more or less “occult” power of finding food; and the extraordinary ease with which diving ducks discover hidden water- plants seems to rule out a mere happy-go-lucky trial-and-error search. Some evidence for and against a sense of smell in birds has been summed up by Mr. J. H. Gurney in the Ibis for 1922. VOICE THE various call-notes of water-fowl are among the most interesting of all sounds. A few, as the “south south southerly” song of the Long-tailed Duck, or Old-squaw, the whistle of the Widgeon, and some of the notes of Teal, are really musical, but for the most part they form a great variety of sound with little musical merit. A large raft of Mallards, Teals, Pintails, and Widgeons, especially when feeding at night, gives off a confused volume of sounds, mostly rapid chatterings, jabberings, coarse low, and squeaky high-pitched quacks, with now and then sharp whistles. In the spring, male ducks have special courtship notes, and these are very curious and entirely unducklike in character, such as the catlike “meeow” of the male Red- head, and the rarely heard dovelike coo of the Greater Scaup, audible only a few yards away. These notes are very often intimately associated with display attitudes. Diving ducks of almost all kinds are much quieter than the surface-feeders, and most ducks are rather quiet while flying. The Tree Ducks, which are obviously noc- turnal, are exactly opposite, for they continually keep up the most amazing whistles while on the wing, and they are very silent on the ground or water. On the whole, the remarkable boxlike bony pouch situated near the bifurcation of the trachea in the males of most ducks seems to act as a voice-stopper and tones down the quack to a reedlike note or whistle. The differentiation of the voice is one of the earliest signs of sex in Mallard Ducks, and the “quack” when once heard in- variably means a female. There is, however, a period at which the voice is half male and half female, when it is extremely puzzling to make out the sex. Young ducks in down make a variety of small peeping sounds. Embryo Mallards show a swelling of the windpipe in both sexes, which gradually disappears in females, so that some time after hatching it is not noticeable in that sex. Those species which do not have a tracheal box have some other curious secondary sex character, like the tracheal air-sac of the Ruddy, the subgular pouch of the Musk Duck, or the cesophageal dilatation in the Black-headed Duck (Heteronetta). 26 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS Among the Tree Ducks we find less difference in the trachez of the sexes, and there is no tracheal box in the male. We do, however, find the trachea widened into a simple spacious chamber in this sex, but the voice does not seem to be affected. ASSOCIATION OF SPECIES One of the most striking characteristics of this group of birds is their sociability. Among northern migrants, the Mallards, Teals, Widgeons, and Pintails mix together on their winter feeding grounds almost indiscriminately, while companies of Can- vas-backs, Red-heads, and Scaups, with a sprinkling of Widgeons, are a common sight. But even the smaller ducks are often seen feeding side by side with geese and swans. The fancier may safely confine almost all ducks in the same pond, and will have no real difficulty except with Casarcas, Spur-winged Geese, Comb Ducks, and allied species. There is some parasitism among ducks. The case of the Widgeon feeding on plants brought up by Pochards and Scaups is often cited, but this is not true parasitism. It is less well known that certain diving ducks, notably Canvas-backs, Ruddies, and Red-heads, lay quite indiscriminately in each other’s nests, and the Black-headed Duck (Heteronetta) is apparently about as parasitic as the cuckoo. Duck nests have been described in which four species have laid eggs. Association may, of course, be merely accidental, as when it is brought about by similar food habits. There are some kinds of water-fowl that are quite averse to mixing with kindred species, or even with others of their own kind, but such habits are found mostly among the gooselike, not among the true ducks. It is this mixing of so many different sorts of birds, showing off their various and characteristic flights and swimming postures, that makes sitting in a duck-blind so fascinating. It is not at all uncommon to bring home ten or twelve species of ducks in one day’s shooting in localities like Currituck Sound, North Carolina. Sociability almost ceases when the breeding grounds are reached, and ducks seldom breed in colonies, like gulls and terns. Eiders, some Tree Ducks and perhaps some diving ducks are exceptions. Many species do place their nests in fairly close prox- imity to each other, but others, as Casarcas and Egyptian Geese, isolate themselves and have a strictly limited “beat”? from which they chase away all intruders. The European Sheldrake appears to have a real understanding with foxes and other mammals that could very easily destroy its nests, were they so inclined. Other ducks nest on cliffs among birds of prey, and yet are apparently free from harm. FOOD Ir is hardly necessary to enumerate plants and animals upon which ducks are de- pendent. Under each species will be found such details as I have been able to gather. The more adaptable ducks of the Mallard type are practically omnivorous, and their INTRODUCTION Q7 choice seems to be controlled only by the size of their gullets and the capacity of their crops. Most diving ducks are, however, much less independent, and their dis- tribution is from time to time deeply affected by slight changes in freshness or salt- ness of lagoons and the consequent luxuriance of various crops of water-plants and mollusks. It follows, of course, that most of the fresh-water ducks are easy to maintain in confinement on ordinary grains, while such species as Scaups, Golden-eyes, Scoters, Eiders, and the fish-eating Mergansers are only kept alive with infinite care and trouble. Among the surface-feeders, Shovellers do not live well, because their natu- ral food consists of a large proportion of very minute animal and plant life. There is a greatly increased proportion of animal matter in the summer food of ducks, and the young for the first few weeks depend upon animal food, chiefly the larve of insects, for sixty to ninety per cent of their entire diet. COURTSHIP AND NESTING As I shall notice under the Mallard, and may repeat here, the term “courtship” will be used to cover the whole series of events resulting from the “mating hunger,” all activities, in fact, which lead up to the building of the nest. The term “display” will be used merely to describe those social plays which result finally in the choice of a mate, and where display is well developed it is probable that the female does actu- ally select her own mate, although we still lack experimental evidence on this point. Under courtship we should consider the search for the mate, the fighting, or rivalry of males, etc., but “courtship” must not be used in an anthropomorphic sense. We must always bear in mind that the birds’ activities are exercised mostly in an un- conscious manner, and without real understanding, although their general behavior may remind us very greatly of our own. Display antics have occupied the attention of field observers a great deal of late years. They are well worthy of study because they are extremely complex, and very characteristic of the species. There is no doubt that these postures hark back a long way in the relationship of the various subfamilies of Anatide. I do not think they were described before Naumann’s great work on the birds of middle Europe about a hundred years ago. Besides being interesting in themselves, they are often very beautiful, and tend to exhibit the grace or agility of the performer in its highest degree, and to show off the striking parts of his plumage. It would be interesting to inquire into the origin of display, but this would draw us into a general discussion of the evolution of sex, and the origin of secondary sex characters, a subject that would lead us far afield. We must admit that in some way these sex postures are closely associated with the choice of mates, for they are very elaborately developed in many different families of birds, are almost as pronounced in reptiles, and are highly organized in insects. It is hard to understand whether 28 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS they appeared before or after sex differentiation, and whether they were not at first common to both sexes, as they are in some cases now. There is a splendid field for inquiry into the question of the choice of mates in birds. Display is seen at almost any time of year except when ducks are in full moult, and it has no necessary relation to the pairing act. Ducks that are definitely paired practically cease to display, and it follows that these actions are best seen, not on the breeding grounds, but in early spring. Mallards and Black Ducks begin to pair in late winter or very early spring, the older ones doubtless before the birds of the year. At the same time, or a very little later, the reproductive organs of both sexes begin to enlarge. Other species, Teals, Pintails, Widgeons, and Gadwalls, do not generally pair until a little later. Flocks of diving ducks, Scaups, Red-heads, Ring-necks, and Scoters, break up into pairs later than the surface-feeders. On the nesting grounds we see various pursuit flights, single males chasing a pair of mated birds or perhaps many males chasing one female; and these flights, though interpreted in various ways, cannot be considered, in my opinion, as part of a dis- play. Francis Harper, who spent the whole spring season among the ducks on the Athabasca Delta, seems to think that a mad scramble among all near-by males occurs whenever a female who is ready for pairing appears. In order to join in these pursuit flights a male will temporarily abandon his own mate who may be beside him. I had always thought of the pursuit flight as having to do more with rivalry for nesting sites than anything else, in other words a question of territory, but these observations of Harper’s put a different light on the matter. The time for nesting varies in holarctic species with the latitude at which the in- dividual stops for breeding. As we approach the warm countries, the nesting time is not only much earlier in the spring, but it extends over a longer season. In all those tropical countries dominated by a definite rainy season, ducks breed directly after the floods begin, when it becomes possible for them to disperse over the interior. This may mean irregular flights from coast to interior, but such movements are not true migration. It would take altogether too much space to go into an enumeration of the nesting sites of ducks. Most of the true fresh-water and diving ducks nest on the ground, or over the water, whereas nearly all the tropical species nest in trees, not neces- sarily in hollow limbs, but quite as often in deserted nests of other species. It is cer- tainly rare for ducks to build stick nests of their own, but there are such instances among Tree Ducks. The adaptable Mallard chooses tree nesting sites much more often than is gener- ally known, and probably, should elevated positions become necessary, this sagacious bird would soon learn to discard ground-nesting entirely. Many diving ducks build nests that are almost floating, while it is not rare for surface-feeders to lay their eggs a long distance from the water. The Tree Ducks INTRODUCTION 29 nest both on the ground and in trees, depending upon the kind of country. The same species may have entirely different habits in different parts of its range. The Goose Teals (Nettapus) are mostly tree-nesters. The Casarcas always choose a covered nesting place, and the common European Sheldrake occupies the burrows of ro- dents. Eggs of the more typical ducks are rather uniform in appearance, unspotted, and white, greenish blue, or brownish in color. There is nothing particularly noteworthy about the eggs of this group. They are without any suggestion of protective (?) markings, but this is more than made up by the general habit of covering the clutch with down plucked from the female’s breast. All groups except the Tree Ducks line the nest with down. The egg of a certain species, the curious Pink-headed Duck of India, is almost as round as a billiard ball and polished like ivory. The number of eggs in a clutch varies greatly even among individuals of the same species, and birds of the year as a rule lay a smaller number. Nevertheless, there is probably a typical number for each kind. Practically all the holarctic ducks and also those of southern South America lay a large clutch of from eight to fourteen eggs. A few tropical ducks lay from four to six eggs, and several Australian species and those living on islands lay small clutches. The Torrent Ducks seem to lay only two eggs, being in this respect more like the loons and grebes. The incubation period varies from twenty-three or twenty-four days in the Teal, to thirty days in the Tree Ducks and thirty-four or thirty-five days in the Muscovy. The typical period is twenty-eight days. There are many interesting differences connected with the habits of the male dur- ing and after incubation, and these are not well known in the rarer ducks. In some Tree Ducks, and probably at times in the Sheldrakes, the males assist in incubation. This never occurs among the typical fresh-water or the diving ducks. In most of our northern ducks the male leaves the female after the young are hatched, and often as soon as incubation commences. Probably in most cases he never sees his family again, for these males assemble at certain favorite places and in the strictest retirement proceed to moult. There may even be considerable move- ments of males at this time, as in the Scoters, Eiders, Barrow’s Golden-eyes, and others, and it is rather a common observation that no old males are seen at a given breeding ground after June. For instance, flocks of male Pintails numbering more than a thousand suddenly appear about the middle of June in the Bear River marshes of Utah, and moult there. On the other hand the male Ruddy Duck is a very dutiful father, and stays with his growing family at least until they are safely on the road to maturity. Nearly all those species in which the female and the male have similar plumage, like the Tree Ducks, the Casarcas, and the gooselike Spur-wing group, be- have in an entirely different manner, and the males are very pugnacious and active guardians of the family. Exceptional cases have been noted in which individual 30 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS males of our northern ducks stay with the female and young brood; such instances have been recorded among Mallards, Gadwalls, and Shovellers. There seems to be some rather important relation between the early desertion of the females by the males and the presence of an eclipse plumage, and there is a great temptation to hazard some sort of explanation to account for this. Data on the movements of the sexes in those South American species where the male and female plumage is the same ought to shed light on this point. We now know that males of the South American Pintail, in which there is very little sex difference of plumage, leave the females just as do the common ducks of the Northern Hemisphere. FOOD VALUE In the first half of the nineteenth century the epicures of Baltimore and Philadelphia made the Canvas-back of the Gunpowder and adjacent rivers famous everywhere. But the Ruddy Duck, perhaps second to the Canvas-back, scarcely became known as a table bird until the late nineties. Before the sale of ducks was stopped in our eastern markets, Ruddies were selling at from $2.50 to $3.00 per pair, and Canvas- backs at from $6.00 to $8.00, so that the Ruddy in proportion to its weight was the more expensive. This was probably the highest price ever paid for ducks. In the fourteenth century in England Gurney tells us that Teals sold for as little as two pence each and Mallards at from three pence to five pence. From the epicurean viewpoint I should place our American Widgeon when shot on good feeding grounds as at least third in order of merit. Indeed, Frank Forester placed it as second only to the Canvas-back. The Red-head would be classed by many as second to the Canvas-back, but much depends upon the food, for Red- heads at times feed in salt water, along with Greater Scaup. With European ducks I am less familiar, but I do not understand that there is any species there comparable to our best, although this statement would no doubt be violently contested by our brother sportsmen across the water. When we come to the whole group of surface-feeding ducks there is really very little choice among species, and a great many of the supposed preferences are wholly imaginary. Under similar feeding conditions, few, if any, could make intelligent discrimination between Mallard, Black Duck, Pintail, Gadwall, and Teal. Eiders, Scoters, Mergansers, the true Sheldrakes or Casareas, and most of the Spur-wing family are practically unfit for food. Young Scoters, before they have reached salt water, are not “fishy,” but dry and tasteless. Golden-eyes, Buffle-heads, and Hooded Mergansers are fairly palatable when fresh from interior breeding grounds. A great deal of nonsense has crept into literature regarding the palatability of the flesh of wild-fowl, and some species have received undue praise merely because they were eaten by some meat-hungry traveler in remote regions. I myself have eaten INTRODUCTION 31 Eider Ducks, young Burgomaster Gulls, and even herons, and found them delicious, but the same birds at home would probably have driven the cook out of the kitchen. New England “coot” stew (made from Scoter Ducks) is still popular in this region, but it is good in direct proportion to the thoroughness of its disguise in cooking, and loons, herons, and grebes might serve about as well if a sufficiency of the culinary art were lavished upon them. There has been no chemical analysis of the flesh of wild ducks so far as I have dis- covered, but it is not likely that it differs much from what is found in tame varieties. According to a United States Government Bulletin, ducks as purchased contain less refuse than do chickens, and in the actual meat there is about the same amount of water. The proteid content is about the same, but the fat is twice as much, so that the actual caloric value of the edible portion is considerably greater, in fact the dif- ference amounts to nearly sixty per cent. Wild ducks’ meat is a hearty food, and it should appear on the table as the piéce de résistance, not, as it so often does, following a substantial meat course. I do not think wild-fowl in good condition need be hung more than two or three days. This does not hold with pheasants, grouse, snipe, and woodcock, but I never could see that the flavor of a really prime duck was improved with age. After roast- ing in a very hot oven, the carcass should be well singed in a flame, or seared with a red-hot iron. In considering the qualities of ducks’ flesh the age of the bird, the place at which it was shot, the flavor, the texture, and the delicacy should be considered. Sometimes birds of fair flavor are coarse and dry, as with Scaups and Golden-eyes; others that are juicy and delicate may have too strong a flavor from feeding on marine mollusks. The best physicians of Rome, according to Aldrovandi, were against the use of tame ducks’ meat as apt to “agree not with the stomach,”’ but the flesh of wild ducks was considered savory and wholesome. There are many allusions to the medicinal virtues of ducks’ flesh in older writings. HUNTING Tuis subject is far too lengthy a one to consider, and it is covered so well by many books in this country, and particularly in England, that it would be of little interest here. Under each species some mention will be made of hunting methods, but nearly every part of a country has its characteristic boats, decoys, dogs, and blinds, so that a full consideration is not possible. The more primitive native methods of shooting or netting will here and there be referred to. This subject has been carefully studied by MacPherson in his History of Fowling. Many keen duck-shooters find themselves getting more and more sentimental as they grow older, and these are the men who originate all our worth-while reforms, not the type that has been brought up to look with holy horror upon guns and shoot- 32 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS ing-men. I remember the late Wilton Lockwood used to say that a man ought to be hanged for shooting a Teal, yet he was as keen as any one in the pursuit of Black Ducks and Golden-eyes. Lockwood was an artist and a very successful breeder of water-fowl, but toward the last of his life his earlier hobby was dropped, and he be- came a lover of flowers, which shows again how sentiment may change with age. In my own case I must say that I am more and more inclined to agree with Frank Forester, who held ordinary duck-shooting from a blind in very low esteem. After all, real sport is measured by its demand upon skill, patience, and woodcraft, and shooting baited ducks over a large flock of decoys, while seated in a comfortable box, to say nothing of a punter and a dog to chase the cripples, does not call for a very large measure of any of these qualities. The English science of punting for ducks with a big gun is commonly considered in this country as entirely beyond the pale, but as a matter of fact any method by which ducks are stalked is far more sportsmanlike than where the birds are brought to the shooter. I have often thought that sculling after Black Ducks in a white- covered float among the ice-cakes and snow-fields of our New England marshes was the most difficult, exciting, and perhaps dangerous way of getting fowl which I have ever engaged in. So again the ethics of sport are more or less comparative, and not absolute. In places where ducks are very shy and scarce, one does not kesitate to use live decoys, but where they are plentiful, these aids are not necessary and really detract from the pleasure. So much for the great science of duck-shooting. Every one has his favorite meth- ods, his pet memories; but as for me, regardless of ethics, let me hark back to before the days when night shooting was a misdemeanor, and let me watch the fading day- light on the wintry, wind-swept marsh, where some strip of sand dunes stands out a glowing rose-color in the darkening east, and with a few crude bunches of seaweed decoys for company, let me strain my ears during that magic half-hour of twilight for the regular “swish-swish-swish”’ of incoming ducks and then suddenly see those marvelous black silhouettes, as a troop of “duskies” cuts in, and with down-curved wings and lowered necks crosses the still rosy band of western sky. ENEMIES WirH enemies, again, it is not necessary to deal just here, but they may as well be briefly classified. First and foremost, of course, comes man, but his work will be con- sidered under the head of ‘‘ Status,” for his damage is mostly recent. Among mam- mals nearly all the small carnivores are destructive at times, and more particularly the mongoose, rat, stoat, and fox when introduced into new environments. Even the domestic cat has taken to feeding upon water-fowl in Australia and in our own West, and hogs at times interfere with breeding grounds. The otter is sometimes very destructive to pinioned ducks on enclosed ponds. INTRODUCTION 33 Among birds are eagles, hawks, especially the peregrine type, owls, ravens, crows, magpies, and gulls. Among reptiles crocodiles and certain snakes are the most im- portant, while turtles, where the larger kinds occur on breeding waters, take a heavy toll of young birds. The huge monitor lizards of the genus Varanus eat both eggs and young and are destructive to certain tropical ducks. Fish of the pike family are dangerous to young ducks. Sea ducks have even been caught by large clams, when diving for food. Many parasitic worms have been found in the intestines of ducks, some encysted in the muscles of the breast. There are also various feather-mites which are common. Ducks have been known to be killed by leeches. We might include under enemies the lead-poisoning from eating shot, which is found rather commonly in ducks, and also the alkali poisoning, or “duck sickness,” seen recently in our own West. STATUS THIS is a subject which ought to interest us above all others. We are living at a time when the whole world is being overrun and desolated by civilized man, and we of this generation will be held responsible by those who follow us. To us comes the task, hopeless as it seems at times, of saving those remnants of birds and mammals that are found to be compatible with life on an ever more crowded and greedy globe. With many rare and beautiful species we can collect only a few skins for preserva- tion, and chronicle in our journals the date of the taking of the last wild specimen. But fortunately with our group there is much that can be done, and many of our most valuable kinds of ducks breed so far from agricultural latitudes that the crea- tion of suitable winter refuges and of certain sanctuaries to ensure them food and protection during migration is all that is necessary at present. There is, I think, no group of birds that will respond so readily to encouragement as the Anatide, but they are faced throughout the interior with grave dangers, be- cause of the constant drainage of lakes and swamps, while on the coast they are threatened with a constantly increasing amount of pollution by oil. Nevertheless, there is a brighter side to this picture, for great storage-basins for the irrigation of vast desert tracts are being created in many heretofore nearly waterless regions, and it seems as if the benefit from these might offset the damage from the other. The oil nuisance may be stopped in time, as sportsmen are already thoroughly aroused, and oil kills fish as well as birds. The status of a species is most difficult to estimate, and until some sort of a status bureau is created which shall have for its object the sole duty of checking up State game and fish, sportsmen’s-club, warden, and individual reports, we shall really know little about the subject. A bureau such as this would in a few years well repay its cost, and it would gather very valuable data on the shifting of bird populations, 34 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS good and bad breeding years, and destructive industries, as well as irruptions of bird enemies. We need more studies like that conducted by Wetmore in the Bear River marshes of Utah, where an estimate of the exact number of breeding pairs was arrived at. Our own Biological Survey is doing as much of this sort of work as it can. Now, there are reasons why the status of a given species is hard to get at, and most of these reasons are not considered by the average sportsman. A census of particu- larly attractive areas, where duck population gathers to the full limit of food re- sources, is obviously misleading, for less favorable stopping-places will be drained before the great resorts become affected. It might be likened to the depopulation of some of our Western States, which does not in the least affect the city of New York. Besides, migration routes are not hard and fast, and we are at a loss to explain the irruptions of certain species at certain places, or their dearth at others. And then there are droughts and floods, bad breeding years, destruction of great brackish- water lagoons by breaking of beaches, introduction of carp or pike, and perhaps catastrophes from storm and frost that we cannot possibly take into consideration. The great northern periodic cycles of mice and rabbits with their attendant increase of predaceous lynxes, hawks, and owls may even affect the breeding grounds of ducks. And last, but not least, we want to know the approximate numbers destroyed by man from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, the decrease of breeding area from time to time, and the effect of industries which may pollute the waters by chemicals or scatter oils on the surface. Mr. E. W. Nelson, the present Chief of the United States Biological Survey, writes me that he considers the molestation of wild-fowl by aéroplanes one of the most seri- ous dangers for the future. They certainly have the effect of driving ducks entirely away from regions over which they patrol, but duck are very adaptable, and I have noticed that the Scaup Ducks on Lake Worth in Florida no longer pay any attention to them. During the ornithological history of this country only one species of North Ameri- can duck has disappeared, namely, the Labrador Duck. Whether this was due to complete destruction upon some restricted breeding ground, or whether changes in the molluscan fauna of our bays or harbors interfered with a delicately adjusted dietary, which the specialized bill suggests, or whether it was from some entirely unthought-of reason, we can only speculate. We must record the fact that Dresser’s Eider is in great danger, unless the depre- dations of the Newfoundland and Labrador fishermen can be stopped, but no other species is in immediate danger here. Among factors which are of local importance in destroying ducks, we ought to mention the accidental taking of large numbers of several species of diving ducks in fish-nets. This has assumed some importance on Lake Erie. Nearly all species were on the down grade in America before spring shooting was INTRODUCTION 35 finally closed in 1913. The process is now temporarily arrested, but it is very doubt- ful whether any increase is more than temporary. We must look ahead to the time when our population will be at least two hundred million, and our waste places prac- tically eliminated outside parks and sanctuaries. It is fair to presume that the num- ber of guns in the field when that time comes will be at least three times what it is at present, and more likely five or six times. Among vanishing species we may record the Hawaiian Duck, Laysan Teal, Bra- zilian and Auckland Island Mergansers, and several Australian ducks. Our own Carolina Duck was placed in the vanishing class a few years ago, but now its safety seems assured. Among the diving ducks of North America both the Red-head and the Ruddy ought to receive careful consideration, on account of their southern breeding range. That group of Ruddies that wintered on the Atlantic Coast has been reduced to a small fraction of its former numbers since 1895. Before we consider the destruction of ducks in our own time we ought to realize that wild-fowl have always been destroyed by man in large numbers. There is rea- son to think that nets discovered in the lake dwellings of Switzerland — a culture which existed at least as far back as 10,000 B.c. — were used to take Teals or ducks. Primitive people everywhere seem to have used the net with good effect, and it is probable that most of the catching was done during the season of moult, or before the young could fly. In New Zealand the natives carefully guard certain lakes and engage in great duck-drives in which trained dogs are used. In the season of 1867 seven thousand are said to have been caught in one lake in three days. Accounts of the great duck-drives carried out by Indians in the Bay of Fundy appear in Audu- bon’s “Ornithological Biography,” and similar methods were used on the coast of Maine by the early settlers in taking ducks, probably mostly Scoters, as far back as the late eighteenth century. This art was almost certainly learned from the Indians. When Penhallow visited the Kennebec River in Maine in August, 1717, to treat with the Indians, he described a great duck-hunt, during which four thousand and six hundred ducks were killed without the use of guns, and afterwards sold to the Eng- lish for a penny a dozen! Ducks, therefore, have always been subjected to heavy toll, and have withstood persecution well on account of the large annual increase in their numbers; but primitive man did not drain marshes, introduce foreign pests, or scatter oil about. It is interesting, also, in considering status, to give an idea of the enormous destruc- tion to which ducks have been subjected in recent times, and these figures will give us a clue to the millions which must once have made up, and still do in many cases, the total population of a given species. In Europe, Naumann, Payne-Gallwey, and others have collected records from some of the older decoys, which institutions date back to 1730 in the East Friesian Islands, to the middle of the seventeenth century in England, to 1582 in Holland, and apparently much earlier in Germany. More primi- 36 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS tive decoys, not the perfected kind with pipes, were common in England in the reign of King John, 1199-1216, and were looked upon as an adjunct of the King’s Forest. In the old times a good day at a Friesian Island decoy would yield 600 to 800 birds, but now not more than 100 to 150. On the Island of Féhr they used to capture on exceptional days 2000 to 2200 ducks. In the year 1789 one decoy took 66,000. In the year 1841 one decoy on the Island of Sylt took 25,244. In 1887 this same decoy captured only 6260. One decoy in the Island of Féhr took in 1841 as many as 52,334 birds, but in 1887 six decoys on this same island got only 33,000. On the three East Friesian Islands in 1887 eleven decoys took 56,000 ducks. In an old Dutch book, called “ Letters from the Isle of Texel,”’ written by Pieter Cuyck in 1783, I find a refer- ence to the five decoys which were worked there at that time. Cuyck says that he has seen 600 or 700 Widgeons caught there in one day. From the Kattenpolder decoy he had seen “so many ducks taken to the barge in order to be conveyed to Amsterdam, that carts with two horses, which were again followed by a small cart with two wheels, were loaded with them.” There are still about one hundred and sixty decoys operating in Holland and at one time there must have been twice as many at least, so it is easy to see what great numbers of ducks must have been taken in one small area. In general, it seems that no great diminution of ducks took place in that region between 1830 and 1860, but after that the decrease was rapid, doubt- less going hand in hand with the diking off and drainage of huge areas. A decoy built by George I of Hesse, in Friesland, yielded 29,665 ducks between 1575 and 1584. Gurney mentions a great banquet in the year 1465 in which 400 swans and 4000 Mallards and Teals appeared on the bill of fare! A remarkable statement was made by Meinertzhagen (1920) that 600,000 ducks were taken annually in the vicinity of Port Said for Egyptian markets. I must say that this number seemed scarcely credible to me until I began to investigate further. In America the numbers regularly taken were enormous. Cooke tells of one gunner at Big Lake, Arkansas, who sold 8000 Mallards during the winter of 1893-94, while from this one place the total number sent to market was 120,000. In the winter of 1913-14, as many as 117,843 Mallards were received in the markets of New Orleans, 27,955 Pintails, 850 Carolina Ducks, 13,632 Ring-necks (?), 15,620 Gadwalls, 1037 Can- vas-backs, 789 Red-heads, 36,864 Shovellers, 30,276 Teals, and 38,560 Blue-bills, or a total of over 283,000. The markets of San Francisco received 47,565 Mallards during the winter of 1895-96, and the California Commissioner writes me that from 800,000 to 1,000,000 ducks are still taken annually in that State. Forbush reported that at Georgetown, South Carolina, the rail-head for a famous ducking country, 5000 Mallards and Black Ducks were received in a single day. At Currituck Sound, North Carolina, there are some twelve or fifteen clubs which formerly took an annual toll of between 2000 and 6000 ducks each, besides many others which took less. One club at Currituck has a score of 74,942 ducks shot in INTRODUCTION 37 twenty-two years. Another had 49,000 to its credit in twenty years. Then take the Canvas-backs, Red-heads, Ruddies, and other ducks shot by batteries and bush blinds in the open Sound, and we must conclude that from this one region, not over forty miles long, with its clubs and its market shooters, between 100,000 and 125,000 ducks were taken each season, and in exceptional years probably 150,000. The first attempt at anything like an analysis of the total game shot in a season was made by the Minnesota Commissioner in 1919. Each holder of a shooting- license was asked to report all the game taken during the season, and this resulted in a very interesting set of figures. Granted a large error in the recording of the birds shot — for many sportsmen did not report — besides errors in computation of the totals, we must admit their value as a starting-point. Even if we halve them, the results are quite beyond preconceived notions of actual numbers of ducks in any one place. The Minnesota list gives the number of ducks taken in 1919 as 1,804,000, and in 1920 as 1,180,000, these figures being still subject to revision. If we take one million as a basis for an average for this State, and sit down with a map of the United States before us, using such figures as I have already outlined for famous ducking grounds, and taking the country State by State, we arrive at a total which is almost staggering. I cannot place it at less than 6,000,000 and I doubt if it is under 10,000,- 000. For the present, the closing of markets, the shortening of the season, and the bag-limit have perhaps reduced the annual toll by one half; but we must feel quite certain that all the factors which have helped to save the situation will be more than made up for in the future by the increase in hunters’ licenses, the growth of indus- tries, and drainage. To sum up, these estimates, and many more which might be produced, serve to show us what enormous numbers of wild-fow] actually exist, and can continue to do so provided they have the proper places to live and breed in and are given reasonable protection. We must remember that they withstood the most persistent and de- structive methods of hunting, such as the decoy systems of England and Holland, so long as their feeding grounds remained intact, but just as soon as these were reduced beyond a certain point, the numbers which were annually taken fell away rapidly. DAMAGE CERTAINLY ducks do some damage to crops where they arrive in large numbers be- fore the grain is harvested, but it is usually an easy matter to carry on a campaign of “‘frightfulness”’ which will keep them out of the crops. The only serious complaints in the United States have been from the rice-growers of California and Arkansas. Rice ripens late in the season, so that migrants arrive in enormous numbers and special means have to be adopted to keep them out. Aéroplanes have been useful, although harmful to the ducks, and a certain amount of shooting has been permitted 38 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS under special permits from the United States Biological Survey. This matter has been discussed from time to time in reports of the Chief of the Bureau of Biological Survey and in United States Department of Agriculture bulletins. In taking up the different species, mention will be made of grain-feeding habits wherever this seems to be of economic importance. We must hope that methods only mildly destructive will be worked out to prevent economic loss, and these, of course, will differ according to the nature of the crop and the kinds of wild-fow] that feed upon it. A certain type of bomb exploded during the night has already proved quite successful in California. BEHAVIOR IN CAPTIVITY TueERE is a general impression in this country that almost any species of wild duck can be bred under fence, and that large numbers are being so reared on farms and preserves and in municipal gardens. A certain game-breeders’ journal has fostered this idea. Now, if we get down to cold, hard, and disagreeable facts, we shall find that only a half-dozen species can be classed as among those that lay readily in con- finement, and the great proportion of ducks can either not be reared at all, or only with great difficulty, as a sort of avicultural “stunt.” In other words, they are in the same category as our Ruffed Grouse and Prairie Chickens. I do not include in the above generalization those places where ducks are kept on large ponds in almost natural conditions, many of them with full wings, and particularly those ponds located where there is no bad winter freeze-up. With such fortunate conditions many kinds can be tempted to lay that would rarely or never build nests in artificial enclosures or small crowded pools, where all natural food, both plant and animal, is soon exhausted. Then there is a large class of ducks that simply do not keep healthy in captivity, and are short-lived when deprived of wild food. Such are Shovellers, Seaups, Canvas- backs, Golden-eyes, Eiders, and the fish-eaters. Ruddy Ducks only live a week or two. Some of the rarer tropical and Australian ducks have received so little atten- tion from aviculturalists that we hardly know what they might do. But the mere fact that a species apparently flourishes does not mean that it is easily bred. Thus the Tree Ducks live to a green old age, without as a rule any sexual instincts showing themselves. The two easiest ducks to breed are Mallard and Muscovy, but even Mallards will often refuse to lay the first spring after they have been trapped and pinioned. Carolina Ducks are next in order. Egyptian Geese are readily bred, when one has the space; as are Ruddy Sheldrakes, and Paradise Sheldrakes. Most of the Mallard-like ducks are seldom kept, because they are not particularly ornamental, but the Indian Spot-bill responds readily in confinement, and so does the Australian Duck. The Pintail must be classed as fairly easy to rear, and the Blue-winged Teal, if one can winter it successfully, is not a rare breeder. For the rest, it must be said that INTRODUCTION 39 they fall into a very different class, and although there are some successful fanciers who rear many in England, Holland, and Germany, the breeding of them save by an expert is certainly exceptional. In this group which reproduce with difficulty we might place the Gadwall, the three Widgeons, the Green-winged and Formosan Teals, and the Brazilian and Ring-necked Teals. The Bahama or Red-billed Ducks reproduce somewhat more easily. It should be added that when a hand-reared stock of any species has once been established, the problem of getting ducks to breed is very much reduced. Among the diving ducks the European Pochard has been most frequently bred, but our Red-head only a few times. The Canvas-back has reproduced only two or three times, although no especial difficulty has been experienced in rearing them from eggs gathered in the wild. The Scaups have never laid eggs in artificial sur- roundings. The Eiders and Golden-eyes have laid eggs very rarely under conditions of expert care, and the Scoters and Mergansers not at all. The Spiny-tailed, or Ruddy Duck family do not bear captivity. Many interesting observations have been made upon pinioned ducks in enclosed ponds, but birds under these conditions do not by any means act as they would in the wild. For instance, the diving ducks do not moult so promptly or completely, and seldom go into a perfect eclipse. Display, also, may not be carried out so ac- tively, and there is a tendency for perverted traits to appear, which result in an indiscriminate crossing of widely different species. In fact, so common is crossing in captive ducks that it is sometimes easier to get hybrids from the mixed population of a pond than to get the pure strains. Hybrids in the wild state are, however, very rare, and it is extremely doubtful whether any new species have arisen in this way. The only really common mixtures are between Mallards and Black Ducks, and I believe that most of these may be the result of wild Black Ducks mating with semi- wild “‘call’’ Mallards, or “puddle-ducks”’ of various types. During the period when the French Société d’Acclimatation was most active—that is, some fifty years ago — tremendous efforts were made to naturalize, and if possible domesticate, new birds, both for their use and their beauty, but the practical results were negative. After great expenditure of time and money no species of anatine bird except the Gray Goose, Mallard, and Muscovy has been shown in any way suscepti- ble of true domestication, with the possible exception of the Egyptian Goose and the Canada Goose. It is always interesting, I think, to record the experience of an individual, where, as in aviculture, one gets such different and conflicting results. Before listing those species which have reproduced‘on my farm at Wenham, Massachusetts, I should say that I have never had adequate ponds for my birds, and seldom any natural flow of water after the first of July, so that conditions have not been favorable. Particular 40 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS attention has never been given to any save the Carolina Duck, and this bird has been reared by the hundred. The following species have laid eggs, and young have been reared to maturity from them, usually under hens as foster mothers: Mallard, Indian Spot-bill, Aus- tralian Duck, Pintail, European Green-winged Teal, American Blue-winged Teal, Mandarin, and Carolina Duck. The other kinds that have been represented on my ponds, often by only a pair or two, and have never bred, are as follows: Ruddy Sheldrake, European Sheldrake, White-faced Tree Duck, Fulvous Tree Duck, South American Pintail, American, European, and Chilian Widgeon, Gadwall, Faleated Teal, American Green-winged Teal, Baikal Teal, Ringed Teal, Garganey Teal, Shoveller, Bahama Duck, Canvas- back, Pochard, Red-head, Red-crested Pochard, Rosy-billed Duck, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, and Ring-necked Scaup. ORDER CHENOMORPHA SUBORDER ANSERES FAMILY ANATID ORDER CHENOMORPHE SUBORDER Anseres (Ducks, Geese, and Swans) Famity ANATID Ducks are typically shorter-necked than geese and swans, with fewer neck ver- tebree. In common with other members of the suborder, they are adapted for a more or less aquatic life, with webbed feet for swimming (except in Anseranas) and a broad more or less flattened bill provided with horny lamellz about the edge, for sifting out food from muddy water. They agree in having a tufted oil-gland (presumably a derived rather than a primitive character); the feathers are provided with a small after-shaft, which, however, is sometimes absent. In the arrangement of the feathers, the dorsal tract divides about halfway down the neck, enclosing a long narrow me- dian space, and the pectoral tract likewise divides at about the same level, giving off an outer band on each side. The wing has the diastataxic interval. The muscular anatomy is remarkably uniform throughout the group. One pecu- liar duck character, but found also in the loon, tinamus, and some fowls, is the meet- ing of the two great breast muscles over the keel of the sternum. Another marked peculiarity of the group is that the biceps femoris muscle gives off a tendinous slip attaching it to the gastrocnemius muscle, a condition found elsewhere, curiously, in the ostrich. In all members of the group, the muscle formula of the hind leg is ABX+, which means that of the five muscles important in classification, the femoro-caudal and its accessory head are present, as well as the ambiens, while the semitendinosus, though present, lacks the accessory portion that is often found arising from the distal end of the femur. Characteristic of the group and of the related screamers (Pala- medeide) is the possession of two pairs of extrinsic tracheal muscles (i.e., muscles having one attachment only to the trachea) and one pair of intrinsic muscles (both origin and insertion on the trachea) attached in ducks to the third or fourth tracheal ring in front of the syrinx. In most ducks, at least in the males, the trachea at its junction with the two bronchi becomes dilated to form an asymmetrical bulbus or chamber of varying size. In the geese this enlargement is not found, but its place is taken by a bony tube formed by fusion of the tracheal rings. In the possession of from sixteen to nineteen vertebre in front of those bearing ribs, the ducks and geese differ from the swans in which there are from twenty-three to twenty-five. In most ducks the number is sixteen or seventeen; in geese, nineteen. The following osteological characters of the Anseres are drawn up by Seebohm (1889): (1) the dorsal vertebrz are heteroccelous (i.e., the articulating surface is 44 ORDER CHENOMORPHA convex at one end and concave at the other end of the vertebra); (2) in the bifur- cation of the nasals, they are holorhinal (i.e., the nasal opening is rounded poste- riorly instead of being continued as a narrow slit on to the frontal part of the skull); (3) the sternum has but one xiphoid process on each side of the median process; (4) the basipterygoid processes of the basisphenoid bone articulate with the pterygoids far forward and as close to the palatines as possible; (5) the lateral oc- cipital vacuities may or may not be present; (6) the angle of the mandible is much produced behind the articulation and recurved. The maxillo-palatines are thin plates fused with each other across the palate for their entire length (i.e., the skull is desmognathous). The combination of the third and fourth characters is diagnostic of the suborder, and within the suborder the combination of the second, fourth, and sixth is equally so. SUBFAMILY PLECTROPTERINE SUBFAMILY PLECTROPTERINA THis group is characterized by Salvadori as follows: hind toe rather long, not lobed; feet palmated; neck moderately long; tail feathers rather long, broad, rounded at the tip; upper parts mostly glossy. Seven genera are here included. The Carolina and Mandarin Ducks, though placed in this subfamily by Salvadori, are generally included among the more typical ducks of the subfamily Anatinz. The same author supplies the following key to the external generic characters. A. Lores naked; forehead and base of bill furnished with caruncles. al AulongEspulyatptnelvendrotatheswin ga seen ener eee ener Plectropterus bse Wangs withoutespursh-ayee iver t ret Ty rae retreats cerasre Oe es Pecans be: Catrina B. Lores densely feathered. c!. A large fleshy comb on the base of the culmen in the male................. Sarcidiornis d!. No comb at the base of the culmen. e!, Bill equaling or exceeding double the depth at its base. f!, Bill about the length of the head. g!. Outline of the loreal feathering at the base of bill convex anteriorly... .. Asarcornis g*. Outline of loreal feathering straight and inclined backward............ Rhodonessa f?. Bill shorter than head; outline of loreal feathering inclined anteriorly...... Pteronetta e*, Bill shorter than twice its depth at base; size very small.................... Nettapus +s Ha ; ~~ magl. Myerd, Mi + 43 Ar _ A? - uke “ie, ~ — wt by eae’ s ; Via hy pith a : MM: ik Bee wien \d nee Ma ate Nae a yee™ “us neti hye y ma a dng ud a 7 =< 4 : i ae, is : SPUR-WINGED GOOSE PLECTROPTERUS GAMBENSIS (Brisson) (Plate 2) SYNONYMY Anser gambensis Brisson, Ornithologie, vol. 6, p. 283, 1760. Anas gambensis Linné, Systema Nature, ed. 12, vol. 1, p. 195, 1766. Plectropterus gambensis Stephens, General Zodlogy, vol. 12, pt. 2, p. 7, pl. 36, 1824. Plectropterus riippelli Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1859, p. 132, pl. 153, fig. 1. Plectropterus scioanus Salvadori, Ann. Mus. Civ. Storia Nat. Genova, ser. 2, vol. 1, p. 239, 1884. VERNACULAR NAMES English: Kaffir: Spur-winged Goose Ksikwi Gambo Goose Basuto: French: Letsikhin Plectroptére de Gambie Angola: German: Janda Sporengans East Africa: Dutch: Bata mkuba. Wilde mere Onin Afica Arabic: Maccoa Abu qadum Spanish: Wuz abu qgaru Pato ferrao. Hitt Bechuana: Peele peele DESCRIPTION Aputt Mate: General color black with coppery red and green reflections; sides of head, throat, lower part of the neck, breast and abdomen, thighs and under tail-coverts, some of the lesser wing- coverts and edge and angle of the wing, white; a stout, sharp, pointed carpal spur at the bend of the wing. Tris hazel; bill, including the bare skin at the top of the head and the frontal knob, red; nail of the bill whitish; bare skin around the eye and on the sides of the face gray; feet flesh-colored. Length about 800 to 1000 mm.; wing 410 to 540; tail 170 to 210; bill 60 to 80; tarsus 90 to 120. Weight about 12 pounds (5.4 kilograms); has been obtained up to 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms) (Stark and Sclater, 1906; A. Chapman, 1921). 50 PLECTROPTERUS GAMBENSIS Aputt Femate: Like the male, but smaller, weighing from 6.5 to 7.5 pounds (2.9 to 3.4 kilograms) (Hollister in litt.). Youne Birps have the face entirely feathered and no frontal knob. Youne rn Down: Very pale yellow-brown all over, almost buff on the lower side (some specimens which I saw at Tring were darker above). There is no distinct face pattern, but light patches on wing rudiments, scapular region, and sides of rump are well developed, besides a white area along the sides which may almost merge with the rump patches. Thus the pattern approaches that seen in the young of the sheldrakes (Tadorna). Carpal spur well developed. Iris brownish gray, feet gray, bill gray except along the lamellz where it is red. DISTRIBUTION Tue range of this species includes the entire area south of the Sahara, exclusive of Madagascar. There is apparently no migration proper, so that summer and winter range will be considered at the Range: same time. Like many other African birds it does, however, show seasonal changes in general distribution, depending upon the dry and the wet seasons; but our knowledge of these flights is of course very limited. In the West it has been recorded for Senegal (Lichtenstein, 1854) and Gambia, having occurred at Bathurst (Rendall, 1892). It is said to be not rare and to breed in domesticity (?) in the Senegam- bian region and Casamance (Rochebrune, 1883-85). Sousa has reported it for Bissao, Portuguese Guinea, and though there are no records for either French Guinea or Sierra Leone, I think very likely that it occurs there, for it has been found breeding on Gulf of the Marfa River, western Liberia (Biittikofer, 1885). There is no evidence of its oc- Ske currence on the Ivory Coast, though it may be found there. In general the species ap- pears to be rare on the Guinea Coast and in western Africa. J. Smith (fide Reichenow, 1900) has reported it from Accra on the Gold Coast, and there are records for both Mangu and Kratschi in Togoland (Reichenow, 1899b; 1897). I have been unable to discover any information of its occur- rence in Dahomey. In Nigeria it is found in Sokoto (Hartert, 1886), and on the Niger (Baikie, fide Reichenow, 1900), while on the Benue it is common and a few are found also at Yo (B. Alexander, 1907). From Lake Chad it has been recorded also by Denham and Clapper- ton (1826). So far as I know, it has not yet been recorded from Camerun or the French Congo, and Mr. J. P. Chapin, of the American Museum Expedition (in litt., 1914) found it very rare, as were all other water-fowl, in the Upper Congo forests. Eastward, however, the Spur-wing is common in the Sudan. It appears to migrate locally as the season varies, but is in most months fairly common everywhere south of Khartum (Butler, 1905), Sadan though apparently not of frequent occurrence in the Southwest (Butler, 1908). It has been recorded for the White Nile a number of times (Witherby, 1901; Ogilvie-Grant, 1902; Antinori, 1864; Sassi, 1906; Jagerskidld, 1904). Antinori, however, states that it is more common on the Blue than on the White Nile, but I found it almost absent there in the winter season. A. E. Brehm (1857) and Kotschy (fide Reichenow, 1900) both met with it at Senaar. Von Heuglin (1873) took young birds in Kordofan, so it presumably breeds in that region. He saw the birds south even in Bahr-el-Ghazal, and Antinori states that they are not rare in that section. It has also been noted in Abyssinia where von Heuglin found it on Lake Tana. Riippell (1845) and Salvadori (1884; 1888) have recorded it from Shoa, and Reid (Ogilvie-Grant and Reid, 1901) saw the birds in pairs on Lake Ailan near Addis-Ababa, and states that there were large flocks at the junction of the Moggoi and Hauash Rivers. Von Erlanger in 1905 also found it on the lower Hauash. Whether or not it occurs in eastern Abyssinia or in Somaliland, I am unable to say, but it would scarcely be more than a rare bird in this desert region. Gambia Liberia Nigeria ee | Gilkie ta tre Bide hed dacler it hina be: _ me . cy . tae ae os a cerns? P eS ee 2 in he he ei) ie Ss a oa _» ait 7 i t, a =A iy ; feeb) tar ek c Besa. 2 ba ea: HF oe . ’ iq 7 * iy ae } tom +. a ues ae te aft Oe ore ace ie ; 7. , io v abe fy at id 1 ie. Ae . A i 2 vik oes : ete gee me. Sm i i, is es wy ; iM as So 7 ; : bate . ; ba asa? I , -. ey: i hy ae " ett. ms > son gene. | lace + got pein fnehutnn the entire area south of the Sahara, , ee rao ‘ > as a - if MUSCOVY DUCK 59 statement much credence. It does, however, inhabit the island of Trinidad (F. M. Chapman, 1894; Léotaud, 1866). Many years ago R. Schomburgk (1848) spoke of it as abundant in British Guiana, and in recent years it has been found there by Whitely (Salvin, 1886) (alt. 2700 ft.) and by Dawson (1916). It is also abundant in Dutch Guiana, on the coast as well as inland (F. P. and A. P. Penard, 1908-10) and, though there are no records, we may assume that it inhabits also French Guiana. Throughout the greater part of Brazil the Muscovy is commonly met with. It is abundant on Mexiana Island, in the mouth of the Amazons, and breeds there (Hagmann, 1907) and has been re- ported as abundant also in Para, Marajo Island, Arary and Amapa (Goeldi, 1894— aail 1900). According to H. and R. von Ihering (1907) it is found in Bahia, Minas Geraes and Rio de Janeiro, while von Pelzeln has recorded it from the whole central region of Matto Grosso and Rio Madeira. It occurs in Bolivia (D’Orbigny, 1835-44) and in the region of the Brazilian-Peruvian frontier, at Pebas in eastern Peru (Sclater and Salvin, 1867) and on the upper Ucayali (Sclater and Salvin, 1866). The species has recently been taken at Charuplaya, Bolivia (C. Chubb, 1919). Von Tschudi (1845-46) met with it even on the coast of Peru, between Lurin and Chorillos, as well as on the lagoons of the high plateaux; and Farabee, collecting for the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy, took two specimens in May, 1909, on the Rio Tambapata, eastern Peru. De Armas (1893) claims that it was exceedingly abundant there in years gone by. South of the Tropic of Capricorn the species becomes rarer. H. and R. von Ihering (1907) state that it is found in southeastern Brazil in Sao Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul, while both Burmeister (1872) and von Pelzeln (1868-71) have recorded it from the Rio Parana. Berlepsch Southeast- and von Ihering (1885) reported a specimen from Taquara, Rio Grande do Sul. In Para- erm Brazil guay the species was found common by Azara (1805) and C. H. B. Grant (1911) states Paraguay that it is still common in the northern parts, especially at Puerto Maira. It occurs quite frequently also in the Argentine, whence it has been recorded from Oran and Salta (Bruch, 1904; E. W. White, 1882). It is known to have bred in the Chaco (Hartert and Venturi, 1909). It is known also from Tucuman (Burmeister, 1872; H. and R. von Thering, 1907; Lillo, 1902) and La Ramada (Lillo, 1902), from Santa Fé (Burmeister, 1872) and from Buenos Aires (Venturi, fide Dab- bene, 1910; Sclater and Hudson, 1889). It occurs occasionally in Uruguay (Tremole- ey ras, 1920), though the mouth of the La Plata is far south for the species. A remarkable record is that of Oustalet (1901), who tells of the species having been found breeding and occurring in some numbers near Rocca, five miles south of the Rio Negro; that is, about 40° south latitude. Pallas (1831), and later on, among others, Keyserling and Blasius (1840), held that this species originally came from the Caspian, and that it is still to be found there in the wild state. This view is, of course, no longer supported by modern ornithologists, and so eminent an authority as Radde (1884), while admitting that wild birds were found in that region, states that they were undoubtedly descendants of escaped birds. In like manner are to be regarded the specimens that from time to time are taken in Europe, though in years gone by Schlegel (1866) as well as Degland (1849) firmly believed some of the specimens from western France were wild birds. Occasionally examples are taken on the east coast of North America. These also are unquestionably escaped birds or descend- ants of such. M. J. Nicoll, in his “Three Voyages of a Naturalist” (1908, p. 224), says the natives of Tautira in the Tahiti Group brought many of these birds aboard. It has long been domesticated in the Pacific Isles generally. The species has been domesticated not only in Europe and America, but even in Liberia (John- ston, 1906) and East Africa (G. A. Fischer, 1885), so that we may expect to find it almost anywhere. Guianas Bolivia Peru Argentina 60 CAIRINA MOSCHATA GENERAL HABITS Tue best account of the Muscovy in the wild state is given by F. P. and A. P. Pen- ard, “ De Vogels van Guyana” (1908-10), and is in part as follows: They are met with on the seacoast as well as on inland waters. In the dry seasons the species is found in the mangrove regions in flocks of fifty and more, though usually in much smaller num- bers. In the low regions along the coast flocks are much larger than at higher al- titudes, where more than eight or ten are rare, and where they are often found alone or in pairs. The flock follows a leader when walking, but at the approach of danger the individuals scatter in all directions. During the noonday heat they retire into the thick rushes along the shores. They spend the night on high trees. If approached, they fly to the ground and wait with outstretched necks till the danger is past, but if the danger continues they fly off with a powerful, flapping flight. During the breeding season the males fight violently, trying to abduct each other’s mates. Many birds are shot by tying a female to a peg and then scaring up the ducks from the surrounding country. The males are noticeably more numerous than the females, and fight with one another for the decoy female; and sometimes fifty drakes can be killed in one day by this device. At times a dozen decoy birds are used in locali- ties where the species is numerous. Muscovies, these authors continue, are extremely shy before the breeding season, but are taken by good gunners partly because they always fly low. They have rapidly diminished in numbers in recent years. On the plantations, they say, inter- breeding must take place, because in the wild state one finds specimens showing partial albinism. In places where there are no tame birds albinism is not found. Pomeroy (London Field, July 6, 1918) in writing of Colombia speaks of them as being much persecuted there by the natives and of resorting to high trees both at night and during the heat of the day. The favorite habitat of the Muscovy is the region of forested swamps along the banks of streams and large rivers, where they lead a rather secluded life in small companies. Wariness; Datty Movements. Apparently the species is rarely met with far from wooded country except in the wet season when open savannas are flooded. As the dry season advances, they are driven more and more to the wooded banks of streams (Cherrie, 1916). They seem to be well able to take care of themselves, as nearly all writers mention their wary disposition and the inaccessibility of their haunts. Nutting (1882) speaks of them as the shyest and most difficult to approach of all Costa Rican birds. They pass the night in high trees often resorting to the same tree night after night; sometimes, according to Hagmann (1907), dozens roost together in the same tree. A favorite roost in Brazil is the smooth horizontal branch Tropic of Capricorn Eetcopicw a0f ss |eCaprlcornt a2 eT 4 Ae Se Map 2. Distribution of Muscovy Duck (Catrina moschata) MUSCOVY DUCK 61 of the Cecropia (Wied, 1832). During the daytime they remain in the forests for the most part, in the evening resorting to their feeding-grounds, or flighting up and down the streams. When alarmed the members of a flock immediately disperse. Friant; Vorce. Again according to Wied, the flight is extremely fast and causes a whistling sound. The voice is very weak, and, so Heinroth (1911) affirms, “as good as absent.”’ During great excitement males in confinement emit a soft, blow- ing hiss, accompanied by a drawing back and thrusting forward of the head. In the female Heinroth noted a similar but somewhat higher-pitched blowing sound, and during a period of very great fear a high, frequently repeated quack. The downy young peep like other related Anatide, but not very loudly. I cannot recall any sound made by the few Muscovies that I have kept myself. The trachea, a plate of which may be found in Eyton’s monograph of the Anatide (1838), carries a bony pouch at its lower end, in the male sex only. This is left-sided, irregular in shape, and about an inch in longest diameter. Foop. The Penards (1908-10) state that the Muscovy feeds on small fish, insects, small reptiles, and water-plants. They seem to like termites (white ants) particu- larly, and to obtain these the birds have to break open the termite nests with their bills. There are a number of other notes on the food of the species in various parts of Central and South America, but I am aware of few careful analyses of stomach con- tents. Beebe (1909) saw them sifting mud for organic material, and running awk- wardly after the small mangrove crabs in brackish or salt-water coves, in northeastern Venezuela. Another writer includes seeds, water-insects, mollusks, snails, worms, and water-plants in their diet, while there is an old note by Gurney and Fisher (1847) relating the stealing and swallowing of live fish from a tub of water by a domestic bird. Not much importance can be attached to this, however, as many species when deprived of their proper food in captivity will greedily catch and eat live minnows. Muscovies do not, however, confine themselves to wild food, but resort, especially at night, to grain-fields. Sclater and Salvin (1876) speak of their plucking up the roots of the Mandioca. Lord William Percy told me that those he collected near Panama were feeding on the seeds of a water-lily. Two stomachs collected by him, on March 14, 1920, in the Canal Zone, were examined by Mr. W. L. McAtee, and found to contain a trace of animal matter (insects), ground-up seeds of a Pontederiad, a seed of Fimbristylus, and other seeds unidentified. CouRTSHIP AND Nestinc. The Penards (1908-10) found the males fighting vio- lently during the breeding season in an endeavor to abduct one another’s mates. It is interesting to note from these observations and from those of Heinroth (1911) that Muscovies are very distinctly polygamous. The former observers found the males 62 CAIRINA MOSCHATA controlling quite a harem, but it often happened that the weaker birds waited patiently until the stronger ones had almost killed each other, after which they ap- propriated the females themselves! While fighting, the birds seized each other by the head and struck powerfully with their wings, plucking out each other’s feathers. The struggle is accompanied by loud cries, but the character of these the authors do not specify. Why these violent fights did not occur in Heinroth’s semi-domestic birds is not evident. During these fights the females swim about quite unconcernedly. They show no interest in their lords and often quietly take flight during the struggle. Where these birds are numerous the water along the shores is often covered with a thick layer of feathers, a fact noted also by the earlier travelers. There is very little information as to the time of year when the species nests. Sclater and Salvin (1859) were informed that in Central America the Muscovy breeds in December, but at the mouth of the Amazons the month of February is given (Hagmann, 1907). A young brood was taken by Cherrie in Venezuela, May 30th. No doubt the date of nesting is very irregular, but the month of December for Central America certainly does not conform with the breeding season of other species. There are no observations on the courtship of this species in the wild state, but Heinroth (1911) has given an excellent account of the behavior of individuals three- fourths wild in the Berlin Zoélogical Gardens. The sexes do not associate closely together, and there appears to be no family life comparable to that seen in most ducks and geese. Suppose, he continues, that there are on a pond a few Muscovy males and a number of females, we should then see one of the males, wholly in contrast to his otherwise easygoing manner, suddenly rush at one of the females. She flies away and a mad pursuit begins, as a result of which the obstinate female is quite regularly overtaken, ordinarily on the water, but sometimes also on land. As soon as the male seizes the feathers of the head or back she ordinarily lies as though hypnotized, with head and neck outstretched in the well-known mating position. The male usually does not immediately complete the act, but lets her go and swims around her, executing his peculiar head movement in its most extreme expression, now and again picking at the back feathers of the female with his bill. Then suddenly he throws himself upon the female, but usually only to fall over on the other side, repeating these violent tactics several times. Finally, however, he proceeds to the pairing act which is executed in a very awkward manner, so that one might think that the female after its completion would be about half-dead. Nevertheless, the two separate peacefully and paddle toward the shore, bathing themselves energeti- cally. If there are more males than females at a time just before the laying period, when the females are eager to mate, the pursuit by the male is ordinarily omitted. As soon as the female sees the male rushing at her, she then usually lies down quietly MUSCOVY DUCK 63 and resigns herself to the inconsiderate treatment of the male with “nothing short of masochistic delight.’ Frequently it happened that sympathetic onlookers would go running to the keepers to plead for the life and health of the poor, and, in their opinion, much-abused female. Often a female who lacked a mate would, at every attack made upon her by any other duck, quietly lie on the water without resistance and accept, apparently with pleasure, a belaboring by its angry comrade of the pond. Among the males of a pond there is a very strict order of rank. The birds con- tinually watch each other and the strongest one never permits a weaker one to pair. As soon as he sees a male and a female together, he rushes at the pair in question. The weaker male immediately takes flight when the tyrant approaches, a thing wholly in contrast to the attitude seen among males of the true ducks, who will only permit themselves to be torn from the females after the application of real force. So with the Muscovies, on account of this extreme jealousy, the males in a pond remain together, the strongest one staying in their vicinity. In the laying season all these males have their attention fixed on particular females, who, as a matter of fact, are the ones that are shortly to begin laying, or have already begun their clutch. That the males are able to determine the stage of egg development in the female by the red wattles on the face is, Heinroth thinks, quite possible. After the mating act there was no especial behavior noted except the well-known head move- ments. From the above it is quite evident that Muscovies are wholly polygamous in a semi-domestic state, and it is further noted that the males do not in any way con- cern themselves with the offspring nor follow the females when they are’ seeking hollows for their nests, as the drakes of the Carolina and Mandarin species always do. Heinroth adds also some very interesting observations on the mating of the Mus- covy with an Egyptian Goose. The nest seems always to be placed from three to twenty meters high in the hol- lows of trees and commonly, too, between the leaves of palms. Hartert and Venturi (1909) mention their nesting in the dry branches of quebrachas coloradas in the Chaco region. In one instance, however, at the extreme southern portion of its range, south of the Rio Negro, Argentina, it was found nesting on the ground amidst rushes (Oustalet, 1901). The nest appears to consist only of down plucked from the female and the number of eggs is given as eight or nine, often more; ten to fifteen or twenty, according to the Penards. The eggs measure 64-71 x 46-47 mm., are oval, and in color shiny white with a green sheen. According to Heinroth (1908) the incubation period is thirty-five days, but the Penards give only four weeks as the length of the period, which is certainly too short. So many excellent ornithologists seem inclined to credit the various stories of the mother bird bringing the young to the ground in her bill or upon her back, that these 64 CAIRINA MOSCHATA picturesque tales can hardly be dismissed until more intimate observations have been made. The young swim well and even dive with ease. The mother has a peculiar danger-call upon hearing which the young scatter in all directions (F. P. and A. P. Penard, 1908-10). There is something about half-grown Muscovy Ducks that reminds one strongly of young Carolina Ducks, not so much in the color as in the general shape and posture while walking. Sratus oF Species. In Dutch Guiana the species has rapidly decreased in num- bers in recent years (F. P. and A. P. Penard, 1908-10). W. Robinson (1895) reports enormous flocks on the Magdalena River, Colombia. There is apparently no danger of extermination or serious reduction in the numbers of this species as long as large areas remain covered with jungle. Cherrie thought that in Venezuela, in spite of active persecution, not many were brought to bag, and Mr. Crandall tells me that in British Guiana they are probably holding their own. Foop Vatur. In spite of the disagreeable associations of its name this bird has no odor of musk about it and the young birds are fairly good eating. The old birds are tough and have a strong odor. Heinroth (1911) tells us that they cease to be palatable after they have acquired their red wattles. Hunt. The birds are taken as they flight to and from their feeding grounds and sometimes over decoy ducks as mentioned under “General Habits.” They are also watched for at favorite roosting trees. Brnavior IN Captivity. The Muscovy was brought to Europe in the middle of the sixteenth century and has been kept in various parts of the world ever since. It is still very popular in Africa and the Pacific Islands, but seems to have lost favor as a general-utility bird in England and America where of course it cannot compete with the common domestic duck. I have never seen it in either Europe or North America in large numbers, but it is usual to see a pair or two kept, more as an orna- ment and curiosity than for any economic reason. As generally seen they are greatly mottled with white, and often they lose all traces of their former dark colora- tion. The tame birds breed when one year old, although it is a question whether they do so in the wild state (Heinroth, 1913). These domestic birds fly freely, but naturally grow less active as they become older and heavier. As to longevity in confinement, it may be said that they reach a considerable age, like most large swimming birds, but exact information is wanting. Flower (1910) notes one that lived over eleven years in the Giza Gardens and it would not surprise me to learn that they reach at times a much greater age. MUSCOVY DUCK 65 Heinroth (1911) has noted a very peculiar and interesting point of behavior in his semi-wild birds in the Berlin Zodlogical Gardens, which he had never seen in any other water-fowl except a certain hybrid. (It is quite possible that this is a display phenomenon.) He says his Muscovies, regardless of age and sex, often stand to- gether, holding their heads and bills in an almost vertical position, while they carry out snapping movements with their bills. Those who have not seen it suppose that the birds are trying to catch insects out of the air, and this remarkable “play”’ is frequently long continued. They are really feeling around in the air above them with half-opened bills; some observers have received the impression that they were actually trying to swallow their tongues. There seems to be no explanation for this remarkable performance except as I have suggested above. Again, Heinroth, in continuing his account of the behavior of this species, says that angry males thrust their heads and necks under water before starting to attack an adversary. But in this case the conduct expresses great excitement and it is not a prelude to the mating performance as seen in other swimming birds. When the birds are about to take wing they make aiming motions with their bills (a habit seen also in doves, Carolina Ducks and other birds), at the same time moving the head slowly up and down. Concerning its relationship to other water-birds, it may be said that Muscovies lord it over nearly all others and copulate freely with any other species of Anatide, producing various sterile hybrids. Males have even been known to attempt mating with a domestic hen, and they have crossed with the Spur-winged Goose in the New York Zodlogical Gardens producing young that lived only a few days. Heinroth (1911) discovered that they fought not only with their bills and wings, but also with their strong claws. He found the old males quite dangerous to handle, and says it is rarely possible to get away without a few bloody scratches. Others, however, do not find Muscovies particularly combative. Domestic birds like to nest in burrows or sheltered places. There is one instance of a pair building in the steeple of a church in Sussex, England, ninety feet from the ground among the bells. Here the female laid eight eggs (Hussey, 1858). H. W. Robinson (1914) watched a female push her newly hatched young off a beam in a barn forty feet from the floor, and says they landed uninjured. Thomas Bell (1850) relates an interesting performance of a domestic Muscovy. One day, after feeding and bathing, and before she returned to her nest, this female carefully passed the point of her bill over every egg. Then she singled one of them out, removed it in her bill to a distance of about three yards, broke it by a stroke of the bill and then returned to her duties of incubation, perfectly contented. The egg proved to be addled. There are a few instances of similar behavior in other ducks. Under domestication the old males reach a great weight, up to about twelve pounds, and become gradually unable to fly. This is rather curious, because in the 66 CAIRINA MOSCHATA wild state the males are about double the size of the females and of course remain active on the wing. Domestic life appears to have brought about more retrogression in the males than in the females, for the latter usually fly well. HyprivizaTion. This species crosses readily with domestic Mallards and the off- spring are of enormous size and weight, but sterile. They differ according to which species is the male parent. Those hybrids having the Mallard as the male parent do lay a few small eggs, incapable of development and there are interesting structural differences of the trachea (Heinroth, 1911; Poll, 1906). I reared a number of these crosses and found them excellent for the table. This duck has also been crossed with the Spur-winged Goose (Plectropterus) as mentioned under that species; and with the Egyptian Goose (Leverkiihn, 1890; Lécaillon, 1922), and even with the Shoveller (Leverkiihn, 1890). History oF DomesticaTion. As already noted under “Distribution” the old theory that this species originally came from southern Russia or Turkey has been definitely dismissed. There are, however, various theories as to the locality from which the first specimens were taken to Europe. De Armas (1893, p. 319) offers what seems to me the most plausible explanation. His argument briefly is as follows: The Muscovy was first met with at Cartagena, the capital of the State of Bolivar, Colombia, in 1514, where according to Oviedo the Indians kept it in domestication and called it “Quayaiz.” He describes the warts about the head and makes the identity clear, showing also that the color had already been affected by domestica- tion. It was extremely abundant in Peru, whence the Spaniards exported it under the name of “Pato perulero”’ to Central America, Mexico, and Europe. Garcilasso says it was the only domestic bird of the Peruvians. After death the natives dried the birds in the sun, pulverized them, and used the powder as a perfume! Pizarro _ even gave some of this perfume to the King of Spain. They were domesticated also in Paraguay, where, as Cabeza de Vaca says, they were of great utility in combating a plague of crickets. At the beginning of the past century, Noceda, the friend of Azara, wrote that the white ducks domesticated on the banks of the Plata were specifically different from the wild ones, but Azara argued that they were one and the same species. Azara perceived no musky odor and contradicted Buffon on this point. Belon mentioned the bird as coming from the New World. Cardanus and Rondelet also knew its origin and sent descriptions and drawings to Gesner, who reproduced these in his De Avibus (1555). It was mentioned by Dr. John Kay or Caius (De Rariorum, 1570) as present in England at that time. Nevertheless, some supposed it to have come from Turkey, some from Egypt, some from Barbary, and some from Russia. This last mistaken origin began with a translator from the Latin, who, reading Anas Moschata, translated it into French Oie de Muscovie. Prince MUSCOVY DUCK 67 Maximilian von Wied persisted in considering the European birds as having come from Turkey. The ornithologist John Ray (1678) seems to have been the first to attempt to straighten out all the confusion. A curious explanation of the name Musk Duck is given by Hill (1864). They were, he says, originally procured from the Mosquito Coast, Nicaragua, the country of the Muysca Indians (see Humboldt’s Researches), whence was derived the name Musco Duck, corrupted later into Muscovy Duck. The West Indian islanders had early domesticated this species, for on the arrival of Columbus his men found “ducks as large as geese”’ among the Indians. Brézol (1889) quotes Nehring to the effect that the species was imported to Europe in 1550 and spread rapidly to France. COMB or KNOB-BILLED DUCK SARCIDIORNIS MELANOTA (PENNANT) (Plate 4) SYNONYMY Anser melanotus Pennant, Indian Zodlogy, p. 12, pl. 11, 1769. Sarkidiornis melanonotus Layard, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 1, vol. 14, p. 268, 1854. Sarcidiornis melanonotus Blyth, Ibis, ser. 2, vol. 3, p. 175, 1867. Sarcidiornis melanonota Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1876, p. 694, pl. 67. Sarkidiornis africana G. R. Gray, Genera Birds, vol. 3, p. 605, no. 2, 1845. Sarcidiornis africana Strickland, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 2, vol. 9, p. 349, 1852. Sarcidiornis melanonotus Lichtenstein, Nomenclator Avium, p. 101, 1854. VERNACULAR NAMES English: Do’d sarle haki — Canarese Comb Duck Neer-koli — Coimbatore Knob-billed Duck Tan-bay — Burmese Black-backed Duck Bowkbang — Karen African Humped Duck Madagascar: French: Arosy Canard a bosse Ara Oie cabouc Angongo Oie bronzée Sivongo German: Kaboka Hickergans Rasana Glanzgans Angola: Bronzeriickige Gans Vioto or Ecubo Schwarzriickige Gans Gazaland: India: Isekwi Nukta — Hindu Arabic: Nakwa — Chota Nagpur Wuz el tin Naki hansa — Uriya Wuz abu qadum Jutu chilluwa — Telegu Berkejh Teukimbub — Tuareg DESCRIPTION Apvutt Mate: Head and neck white, spotted with metallic black feathers that coalesce more or less upon the crown, nape and hind neck; lower neck and whole lower plumage white, tinged sometimes MONG G3A11Ig-dONM YO gNoo vy alvig COMB or KNOB-BILLED DUCK 69 with rufous gray; rest of upper plumage and wings black, glossed with green and blue, except on the secondaries, which are glossed with bronze, and the scapulars, on which the gloss is purple; tail brown. A black mark, almost a collar, on sides of neck, and another black band on the front of the under tail-coverts. Lower back gray (Baker, 1908). Tris dark brown to yellowish brown; bill black, and at breeding season surmounted by a comb-like protuberance at the base, which is black with white spots (white spots do not occur regularly); feet dark leadish gray. Bill paler on the lower mandible, and fleshy toward its base (Hume and Marshall, 1879). The fleshy protuberance on the bill becomes greatly enlarged during the breeding season, frequently measuring 55 by 61 mm. (A. Anderson, 1874). According to Bohm (1882), Finn (1909), and Horsbrugh (1912) the male during the breeding season carries a small bunch of orange feathers at the sides of the lower abdomen. Writing of a male of the closely related S. carunculata, which was recently received in the London Zoological Gardens, Seth Smith in the London Field of May 29, 1915, mentions the bright yellow feathers at the base of the tail, and also a patch on either side of the head. Since then I have seen these curious feather tracts in a live bird in New York. This yellow coloring is assumed only in the breeding season and fades im- mediately in dried specimens. Length 620 to 750 mm.; wing 350 to 380; tail 135 to 150; bill 57 to 60; tarsus 55 to 75 (Reichenow, 1900). Aputt Femate: Like male, but smaller and duller; head and neck more spotted with black, but the black less glossy in character, and the gloss on the upper parts also much less developed; lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts all gray (Baker, 1908). Length about 550 to 580 mm.; wing 280 to 290; tail 125; bill 50; tarsus 45 to 47 (Reichenow, 1900). Youne: Like female, but more spotted about the head and browner all over the upper parts. Youne in Down (specimens, British Museum): Very characteristic and having a distinct resem- blance in head pattern to the young of Tree Ducks. Occiput black or dark brown, superciliary stripe white. Transocular streak, which extends back and merges with the occipital patch, dark brown. Behind the occipital patch is a white band which runs around the back of the head and merges with the white of the face on each side. Back of this from ear to ear is a narrow black line. Down the back of the neck runs a black streak which merges with the dark brown of the mantle and whole upper side. The upper surface carries very marked white patches on the wing rudiments, scapular areas, flanks and sides of rump. The lower surface is grayish. DISTRIBUTION Tuer Comb Duck is a species resident in Africa and in India, though in both regions it moves about locally to a considerable extent, according to the change of season and the supply of water. In Africa its distribution is practically the same as that of Dendrocygna viduata or of Plectropterus gambensis; for like those species it is found south of the fifteenth parallel of north latitude, and like them it is rare in South Africa. In the west it has been recorded from many localities in Senegambia by Roche- brune (1883-85), whose work, however, has been called into question by Reichenow in Senerenibin his book on the birds of Africa. It occurs in Gambia (British Museum) and presum- Libens ably in French Guinea and Sierra Leone. Biittikofer (1885) has recorded it from western Nigeria Liberia, Sugary River, and Pel (Hartlaub, 1855) found it on the Gold Coast. It is reasonable to suppose that it occurs along the entire Guinea coast, though it seems to be rare west of Nigeria. Hartmann (1863) found it common about Loko, in Nigeria, while according to Hartert 70 SARCIDIORNIS MELANOTA (1886) it is abundant, and apparently breeds in Hausaland, about Zaria and in Sokoto. Boyd Alexander (1907) states that it visits the vicinity of Lake Chad from time to time. Due to the paucity of information we can only conjecture that it occurs in Camerun and the French Congo. Both Marche and Compiégne (Bouvier, 1878) reported it from Diatakunda, and Camerun Dybowski (Taczanowski, 1874) discovered it in Ubangi, northwestern Belgian Congo. Congo It is a common bird in the Sudan occurring northward even to Kordofan (Strick- land, 1850) and Khartum (von Heuglin, 1873). According to Butler (1905) it occurs in increasing numbers on the upper White Nile above El Dueim. Ogilvie-Grant (1902) and von Heuglin (1869) White also state that it is common on the White Nile. The latter saw it also on the Blue Nile Nile, and A. E. Brehm (1857) found it about Senaar. I saw it in good-sized flocks on the big meres near the Dinder River, eastern Sudan, in February, 1913. In the southern Sudan, on the Bahr-el-Ghazal and the Jur it is abundant (Butler, 1905). Farther east it is found frequently in Abyssinia, from Lake Tana in the north (von Heuglin, 1873), southward in Shoa, Angolalla, Gazelle River, Lake Cialalaka and Lake Haddo (Riippell, 1845; W. C. Harris, 1844; Antinori and Salvadori, 1873; Salvadori, 1888). According to von Erlanger (1905) it was abundant on the Haiiash River. It probably does not extend eastward to the lowlands of Ogaden, nor into Somaliland. There are few records for eastern British East Africa, though G. A. Fischer (1885) found it at Engatana, and Lamu. Hunter has reported it for the east side of Kilimandjaro (Shelley, 1889), British Kirk (Shelley, 1881) for Malindi, F. G. Jackson (1899) for Ukamba, Ogilvie-Grant East Africa for Lake Naivasha (6700 ft.), Horsbrugh for Uasin Gishu Plateau, Sharpe (1902) for Uvuma Island, Victoria Nyanza, and G. A. Fischer (1885) for Kageji, Victoria Nyanza, while John- ston (1902) met with it in Uganda, and Emin Pasha (1891) has recorded it for Tarangole in the same Protectorate. Ogilvie-Grant (1910) reports a flock seen near Fort Portal, Ruwenzori region. It has been found also in Lado, at Bussisi (Emin, 1891) and in the Nyam-Nyam district between the Sudan and the Congo (Piaggio, fide Reichenow, 1900). There is no information by which we can fix its status in most of the Congo Free State, but it is found in the southeast, in the Katanga district ika (Neave, 1910), about Lake Tanganyika (Dubois, 1886a), and occasionally on the up- per Congo (Chapin, in litt.). In Tanganyika Province (German East Africa) it appears to be not uncommon, especially in the north and the west. Speke (Grant, 1872) and von Trotha (fide Reichenow, 1900) have recorded it from Unyamuesi and Mori Bay, and Schillings (1905) also saw it on Victoria Nyanza. It has been found on Lake Djipe (Volkens, 1897) and breeding on the Natron Lakes and Kilimandjaro (Sjéstedt, 1910), while it is known also from Kibaja Massai and Manjara (Neumann, 1898), from Irangi (Reichenow, 1893), from Wiedhafen (Fiilleborn fide Reichenow, 1900) and from Kakoma, Igonda, Marungu, Luwule and Lufuri (Bohm, 1882). Salvadori (1914) recorded it from the Mbusi River, Mozambique. In northern Rhodesia the Comb Duck is not common, though it is known to breed on Lake Bang- weolo (Neave, 1910; Salvadori, 1914) and has been recorded from the Kafue River (Boyd Alexander, Bhodesix 1900). It is abundant, however, on the Upper Zambesi (Bradshaw, fide Stark and Sclater, 1906; Holub and von Pelzeln, 1882) and in northwestern Bechuana Protectorate on the Botletli River (Bryden, 1893), on Lake Ngami where it is resident and presumably breeds (An- dersson, 1872), at Kanye (Nicolls and Eglington, 1892). It is fairly abundant also in Portuguese West Southwest Africa, south of the Cuanza River, where it was found at Kakondo, on the Kunene, Africa at Huilla, Gambos and Humbe (Barboza de Bocage, 1877-81). According to Fleck (1894) it occurs in former German Southwest Africa near Rehoboth, Fish River, and Andersson (1872) describes it as common in the rainy season in Damaraland and Great Namaqualand, and breed- ing in Ovampoland. South of the Orange River the present species occurs only as a rare straggler. It has been taken on the Kleinmont River, Bathurst Division (Layard, 1875-84), and once in Pondoland, Cape Colony Abyssinia Tangany: (Djouvjam srusorprosng) Yon quod Jo uolnqrjsiq “g dv], yOLVNODS COMB or KNOB-BILLED DUCK 71 (Horsbrugh, 1912). A specimen had apparently been taken also in Natal some time before 1862 (Scla- ter, Ibis, ser. 1, vol. 4, p. 284, 1862). There is no record of its occurrence in the Orange South Af- River Colony, but it has been taken on the Molopo River near Mafeking, southwestern rica; Orange Transvaal (W. Ayres, 1887; Shelley, 1882) at Potchefstroom (Barratt, 1876; W. Ayres, River 1887) and at Rustenburg (W. Ayres, 1887). According to C. H. Taylor (1907), it is resident and breeds in southeastern Transvaal in the Amersfoort District, and Haagner (1914) re- cently discovered it breeding on the Crocodile River in the same general region, this be- ing the southernmost breeding record. Between the Limpopo and the Zambesi, that is in southern Rhodesia, the species has been fre- quently found. There are specimens from the Tati River in the South African Museum, and F. Oates (1881) found it on the Ramaquaban River. It is common during the rains on the Que Que River, and in Matabeleland in general (C. H. Taylor, 1907; Holub and von Pelzeln, 1882). According to Mouritz (1914) it is not infrequently seen on the Matopo River, and in Mangwe, and it apparently breeds farther north on the Shangani (EK. C. Chubb, 1908). In Mashonaland, however, it seems to be very rare, for G. A. K. Marshall (1900) only saw one bird there in upper Mazoe. The Comb Duck is known also from Portuguese East Africa. Bradshaw (fide Stark and Sclater, 1906) and Kirk (1864) both saw it on the Zambesi, and Manning (fide Reichenow, 1900) has recorded it from Luchinde. Percival (1902) saw only one specimen on the Shiré River, but it has Portuguese been recorded also from Lake Shirwa (Shelley, 1898). In the south it was found by East Africa Swynnerton (1908) near Chibabava, Gazaland. In Madagascar this species, though apparently not particularly common, is found generally distributed in suitable localities (Milne-Edwards and Grandidier, 1876-81; Hartlaub, 1877; Pollen and Dam, 1868; Sibree, 1892; and others). In Asia the Comb Duck, more generally known as Nukta, is ordinarily found only in India and in the Burmese Countries, where it is resident; though, as in Africa, it moves about as the weather re- quires. Its northwestern limit was long a subject of dispute, but it is now known to India visit the Punjab rarely, and it is said to breed there (Hume and Marshall, 1879); and Burma along the Lower Indus it is known to occur certainly in Sind, for eight were seen and two shot there in December, 1911 (Webb, Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. 21, p. 685, 1912). It does not occur in the Himalayas, however, though the British Museum possesses a specimen from Sikkim Terai. Elsewhere it is generally distributed throughout the peninsula from Rajputana (ex- Sikkim cepting the northwestern part), and Gujerat, Cutch and Kathiawar, south to Ceylon Ceylon and east to Burma. It is, however, rather rare along the entire west coast, in South Konkan, Mala- bar, and Travancore, as also in the region south of Mysore (Hume and Marshall, 1879; Baker, 1908). Still, in Ceylon, it is not as uncommon as one would suppose, and it is even known to breed there (Legge, 1880; Wait, 1917). On the east the species is not so rare in Cachar and in Sylhet, where it breeds (Baker, 1908), and it extends up the valley of the Brahmaputra as far as Sadiya (Hume and Marshall, 1879). For a long time its status in Arakan was uncertain, but it is now known to be not uncommon there (Baker, 1908) and it is said to be common also in Upper Burma (Blyth, 1875). It has been recorded Burma as plentiful in Upper Pegu (E. W. Oates, 1883), and the British Museum has a speci- Pegu men from Lower Pegu. Rippon (1901) found the species rather common in the South Shan States. Williamson (1918) has reported a specimen taken thirty miles east of Bangkok, Siam, and Gylden- stolpe (1913) saw in a garden captive birds that were said to have been taken in northeastern Siam. A very remarkable record for this species is its recent appearance in Fokien, southeastern China, where, at Foochow, a male was shot April 18, and another in June, 1914 (La Touche, 1917). It appears that a flock occurred in that vicinity that year, and the late date, June, may Fohkien indicate breeding. Transvaal Siam 72 SARCIDIORNIS MELANOTA GENERAL HABITS Haunts. The best accounts of the life-history of this species are to be found in Hume and Marshall (1879) and Baker (1908), from which authors I must of neces- sity quote freely. This bird is a tree-loving species, and prefers forested swamp areas, not dense forest like the White-winged Wood Duck, but well-wooded, level, and well-cultivated country. It does not like bare-edged sheets of water, and is rarely seen on the larger rivers of India. It is seldom met in hilly ground, although it has been found breeding at an elevation of two thousand feet, and probably nests at even greater altitudes (Baker, 1908). It favors large mango trees. Tickell (quoted by Hume and Marshall, 1879), however, found these birds in very different locali- ties. In the Chota Nagpur region, it inhabited open, uncultivated, bushy country, where it preferred clear water with gravelly or stone bottom, and not shallow muddy jheels or marshes. Wartness. Asa general thing this species is not exceptionally wary, and Hume says they are not difficult to approach in a punt. According to Stark and Sclater (1906) the birds are easy to approach in South Africa, especially when they have perched. But in India, when in company with a pair or two of Ruddy Sheldrakes, they are much more wild than usual (Hume and Marshall, 1879). Bohm (1885) noted that in German East Africa the females were more shy and cautious than the males, and states also that the males like to associate with Spur-winged Geese. Datty Movements. Observers differ as to whether they are diurnal or noc- turnal in their habits. In East Africa, Bohm (1885) found them much more active in the morning and evening, but Baker (1908), speaking of India, asserts that they are not nocturnal or even crepuscular. Hume and Marshall (1879) also found them feeding much more in the daytime than other ducks or geese. The birds are strictly tree-loving and probably always roost on trees. Fuicut; Divine; Percuine. With the exception of Legge (1880), who thought them awkward and clumsy on the wing, they are considered powerful and rapid in flight, rising faster and in general swimming and diving more actively than true geese, such as the Bar-heads. But it is doubtful whether they really fly very fast compared to northern water-fowl. On the water the bird sits high like a goose, with stern raised, and the neck is carried in a curve, not straight like that of a swan (Finn, 1915). Heinroth (1911) describes the flight as not very rapid, but steady and regular, the tips of the wings being held very low. The gait, according to Legge (1880), is ungainly, the bird, with its heavy-looking head and broad tail, lifting its feet high and taking rather long strides, cutting anything but a graceful appearance. COMB or KNOB-BILLED DUCK 73 AssocIATION. The best observers almost all assert that the Comb Ducks travel about in pairs or families, and only very rarely unite to form flocks. Larger com- panies have, however, been seen in Nigeria (Hartert, 1886) and in Burma (E. W. Oates, 1883), as well as in the Sudan (von Heuglin, 1873). E. H. Young (1899) tells us that even when in flocks, the various pairs keep together, and when one bird has been shot, its mate will often remain behind. This species does not associate com- monly with other water-fowl, but sometimes they are found in company with Spur- wings or White-faced Tree Ducks (von Heuglin, 1873; Béhm, 1885), or in India with Ruddy Sheldrakes, the only fowl with which, says Hume, they ever closely associate. Voicr. In wild birds, and also in those kept in captivity, the voice is almost wholly absent, Heinroth (1911) even maintaining that he never heard them utter any sort of note. By most observers they are described as very silent birds. Von Heuglin (1873) speaks of a tender, whispering note, uttered while on the wing. According to Bohm (1885) the voice is very fine and thin. The testimony of two well-known naturalists, however, is considerably at variance with the above. Legge (1880) describes the note as a low, guttural, quack-like sound, between the voice of a duck and a goose; and Baker (1908) heard them “uttering loud cries” which seemed to him more like the notes of a goose than of a duck. A pair, whose nest he found, used to herald his approach with “loud trumpeting calls” from perches high in a tree. It is possible that the birds call only during the nesting season. In the male there is a very small left-sided diverticulum at the lower end of the trachea which may affect the voice of this sex (Garrod, 1875). The trachea of the female is simple. Foop. The food of the Comb Ducks seems to be chiefly of a vegetable character including both wild and cultivated rice. According to Hume and Marshall (1879) they also swallow worms, larve of water insects, small shells, fresh-water crusta- ceans, and occasionally a tiny fish or two. The vegetable part of their diet consists of grass, water weeds, and various kinds of seeds; in India, sometimes, a remarkably hard quadrangular variety of water-grass seed. CourtsHip AND Nestinc. When the rains commence in India, the Comb Ducks become active throughout the day and move about in pairs. The male, now ren- dered conspicuous by his much enlarged nasal protuberance, and usually flying in front, is distinguishable at a great distance (Hume and Marshall, 1879). From the Berlin Gardens (Heinroth, 1911) comes the only available account of the courtship of this species. The males in a very erect position approach the females with the same continual dipping movement of the head and neck into the water that is com- 74 SARCIDIORNIS MELANOTA monly seen in other water-fowl, but which is in marked contrast to the violent be- havior of male Muscovies. Finn (1915) found the courting male arching his neck and bending down his head, slightly expanding his wings after the fashion of a swan, only much less. The female does not reciprocate, so far as has been observed, but always takes to flight, is soon overtaken, and forced to yield. The females in the Gardens never produced mature eggs, and apparently had no desire to pair. In the wild state, in districts characterized by monsoon rains, the pairing season begins with the rains, while the nesting period is somewhat later, varying in India from June to early September; while in Ceylon the breeding season is in February and March. In South Africa the birds nest in November and December, or even earlier, for half-grown young were found by E. C. Chubb (1908) in late November (25th) in southern Rhodesia. In India some of the young are seen on the wing by early October, but many more are unable to fly before November. The Comb Duck selects for a nesting-site the hollows of old deciduous trees, or the depressions between large branches, where they divide a short distance from the ground. Only very rarely do the birds select a ground site; occasionally, as men- tioned by A. Anderson (1874), they appropriate the nest of another species. Both sexes join in the search for a suitable locality, and Anderson saw both birds flying into the nest-tree together, the male uttering a “harsh grating noise.”” The same writer mentions their nesting in the holes of old ruined forts in the United Prov- inces of India. In Africa very few observations on the nidification have been made, but C. H. Taylor (1907) found that in southeast Transvaal they nest in long grass at the side of a vlet or pan, and once he discovered a nest among the stones of a low- lying hill. When nesting in the trees, they select hollows and branches not far from the ground, often from six to ten feet. In India the mango tree seems to be a favorite choice. Anderson mentions a nest-hole in a banyan tree thirty feet above the ground. Baker speaks of a nest located in a perpendicular bank. Materials other than down are used in the formation of the nest, for sticks, dead leaves, grass, and even snake skins have been found. So little has been recorded concerning the size of the clutch that it is difficult to decide on the correct average number. Nine or ten would seem to be a normal complement, though fifteen to twenty, probably the product of two females, have been recorded from one nest. Anderson (1874) speaks of the capture of an emaciated nesting female who had apparently laid the extraordinary number of forty eggs, and he had received other clutches of fifteen to twenty. A still more remarkable nest was described and figured in the London Field of November 27, 1920, p. 772, by T. R. Liveskey. This was situated in a hollow tree twenty-five feet from the ground and contained forty- seven eggs. The writer thought that two or more ducks had laid in this nest, which was certainly the case. They were in different stages of incubation. The eggs measure 60 to 61.5 mm. by 45 to 46 mm., but are rather variable in size. The color COMB or KNOB-BILLED DUCK 75 is yellowish white, or grayish yellow, of fine texture, smooth and fairly glossy (Reich- enow, 1900). Sratus oF Species. I can find no recent account of the status of this species. Baker (1908) is of the opinion that it needs protection during the breeding season, from June first to December first. As already remarked under Distribution, it has always been rare in South Africa, except on the Upper Zambesi, and Taylor states that, having been too much disturbed, it no longer breeds in the Transvaal. In northern Nigeria, Hartert (1915) records it as occurring in “very great numbers”’; while on the upper White Nile, and on the Bahr-el-Ghazal, Butler recently found it “very abundant.” Several writers speak of this species as being detrimental to freshly sown fields, and it may therefore come more and more into conflict with agricultural interests. Rice-fields seem to suffer particularly from its raids, and in South Africa, Horsbrugh (1912) speaks of its being very destructive to lands sown with “mealies and oats.” Foop Vauur. Although this species cannot be considered a very popular bird for the table, nearly all writers are in accord as to its flesh being fairly good eating; at least it usually is better than the Spur-wing or the Egyptian Goose. The young birds are said to be excellent as food. Horsbrugh (1912) found it “not particularly good” in East Africa, while A. L. Butler (1905) considers its flesh more palatable in Africa than in India. Hume and Marshall (1879) and Jerdon (1864) have formed a somewhat lower estimate of its edible qualities in India, and the former write that even the young in early winter, when they are fat and tender, are apt to have a marshy flavor which it is necessary to conceal. Bryden (1893), speaking of South Africa, thought that, of the three so-called African geese, the Spur-wing was best, and the Egyptian Goose the poorest. Of course none of these is to be compared with the true or northern geese. Hunt. Pollen and Dam (1868) mention that in Madagascar the Comb Ducks are taken during the rainy season in nets. They are said to afford some very good shoot- ing at the commencement of the rains in India. Horsbrugh (1912) speaks of some being taken in traps in cultivated areas in South Africa. Beuavior in Captivity. Although this bird has been commonly kept in parks and in zodlogical gardens for many years, there is only one recorded instance of its nesting in confinement. One of Mr. Blaauw’s pinioned female birds in 1902 began to search for a nesting-site. She climbed over a wire fence and nested under a hedge, where she scraped a round depression in the soil and laid her eggs, all of which un- fortunately proved to be sterile. The bird did not sit (Blaauw zn litt.). 76 SARCIDIORNIS MELANOTA These birds evidently live to a great age, as Hubbard (1907) mentions specimens as still living in the London Zoological Gardens, which were received in 1876; which would make them over thirty years of age. They are hardy and live out of doors, as is evidenced by the fact that they are able to endure the winter climate of New York, for example. According to Hume and Marshall (1879) and others, the Comb Ducks are easily tamed and are often captured and kept by natives in both India and Africa. Pollen (1866) says that in Madagascar they were often taken at the moulting period, and mated very readily with Muscovies, particularly when tamed early in life. He noted that they did not get along well with domestic ducks. There are no recorded in- stances of hybrids produced by matings with domestic Mallards. In the Berlin Zoélogical Gardens, Heinroth (1911) was able to make some interest- ing observations on a Comb Duck whose wings had been allowed to grow. This full- winged bird always flew without previous warning signs, and was gone for half a day at a time. When returning, it did not circle about like most other water-fowl, but shot directly down into the pond. Their manner of fighting, according to Heinroth, is somewhat different from that of the Spur-wing or the Muscovy. They approach their adversaries with head and neck somewhat laid back, coming up from the side in a peculiar manner, at the same time lifting the wings, particularly the secondaries, before jumping at the opponent. This combatant attitude would usually put to flight the Black Sheldrakes who are as a rule very quarrelsome birds. The price of these birds has averaged about $30.00 a pair in Europe, but since the War it would certainly be far more than this. SOUTH AMERICAN COMB DUCK SARCIDIORNIS CARUNCULATA (LicutENsTEIN) (Plate 5) SYNONYMY Anas carunculata Lichtenstein, Abhandl. Akad. Berlin, 1816-17, p. 176. Sarkidiornis regia G. R. Gray, List Birds in Brit. Mus., vol. 3, p. 126, 1844. Sarcidiornis regia Bonaparte, Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris, vol. 43, p. 649, 1856. Sarcidiornis melanonota Sclater and Salvin, Nomenclator Avium Neotrop., p. 129, 1873. Sarcidiornis carunculata Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soe. London, 1876, p. 377. VERNACULAR NAMES English: Spanish: South American Comb Duck Pato de crista South American Black-backed Duck Pato cristado Crested Duck Portuguese: American Wattle Duck Pato doumatto French: Pato castelhano Sens P Pato do Cayenna Sarcidiornis caronculée ay Pato do crista German: Siidamerikanische Hiéckergans DESCRIPTION Aputt Mate: Differs from the Comb Duck of the Old World (S. melanota) only in having the sides and flanks brownish black instead of white, the rump black, glossed with green instead of gray, while the crescent-like band on the sides of the breast is not so conspicuous. In a specimen which I examined in the United States National Museum in Washington, the head and neck appear whiter than in the Old World species, while the upper mandible is more hooked at the tip. In the London Field of May 29, 1915, attention was called to the yellow coloring on the sides of the head. Asa matter of fact this is very marked, and even by mid-January a specimen in the New York Zodlogical Gardens had the region back of the eye and the sides of the upper neck a distinct canary yellow, which increased in intensity toward spring; orange feathers also appeared on the sides of the rump during the same period. Bill dull lead color; iris black or very dark brown; legs and feet dirty yellowish green (live speci- men in New York Zodlogical Gardens, 1920). FremMaA.eE: Same as S. melanota, but having the sides and flanks brownish black as in the male. Youne: Nothing recorded. 78 SARCIDIORNIS CARUNCULATA Remarks: Mr. Crandall informs me that the three young specimens which he received in January, 1919, all reached maturity by June of the same year, and at that time one of the two males killed the other one. DISTRIBUTION Tue northern and western limit of the range of this species has recently been extended by the cap- ture of three live individuals, now in the New York Zodlogical Gardens, near Bar- celona, Venezuela (Crandall, Auk, vol. 36, p. 419, 1919). Mr. T. E. Penard informs me that from July 12 until November, 1918, this species appeared on the British east coast of British Guiana, apparently in some numbers, numerous specimens hay- Guiana ing been taken (see also Penard, Auk, vol. 36, p. 564, 1919). Like its African relative it is seldom found in great numbers, and comparatively little is known of its status, because it chiefly frequents the more inaccessible regions. It was reported from Cayenne by Eyton (1838), but, so far as I know, there is no other reference to its occurrence in any of the Gui- Brazil and anas until the very recent records mentioned above. At the mouth of the Amazons, it is Amazons found on Marajo Island (Goeldi, 1894-1900) and in the interior in Amazonia, at Barro do Rio Negro (von Pelzeln, 1868-71). It unquestionably inhabits all of central Brazil and has been recorded from Maranh4&o (Goeldi and Hagmann, 1902), from Pernambuco (Forbes, 1881), from Bahia (Wied, 1832), and from Rio Janeiro (H. and R. von Ihering, 1907). Very likely it occurs Argentina in Minas Geraes and in Sao Paulo, as well as in Goyaz, for it was found by Natterer in Venezuela Goyaz Matto Grosso, at Sapitiba and at Caicara (von Pelzeln, 1868-71). There is one speci- Buenos men in the British Museum from Ajé, Buenos Aires Province, collected by E. Gibson Aires in 1898. The present species must also occur in eastern Bolivia, though it has never been recorded from that Paraguay country. But it is common in Gran Chaco, Paraguay (Kerr, 1901), and has been found Salta and on the Pilcomayo (Dabbene, 1910). It is occasionally found even in northern Argen- Tucuman tina, whence it is known from Salta (Holmberg, fide Dabbene, 1910) and from Tucu- man (Burmeister, 1872). GENERAL HABITS Aumost nothing is known about this species in its forest haunts. Azara (1805) has given as good an account as more recent writers. He says it is the shyest of all the birds of Paraguay. Noseda informed him that there were many more females than males, and that the latter sex was seen in considerable flocks, associated with other ducks along fields and overflowed districts. The males went about alone or in very small bands, and the natives insisted that the sexes represented entirely distinct species. He found it difficult to convince them that such was not the case. Wied (1832), speaking of Brazil, says that they resort to large swamps, surrounded by reeds and grasses, and, in contradiction to the first writer, found them “not particu- larly shy.” Goeldi (1894-1900) agrees with Azara that this species is exceedingly shy, and he found them always one of the first to take wing. Kerr (1901) speaks of them as extremely shy in the Gran Chaco district of Paraguay, and living singly or in pairs. I am unable to say whether this species is really as rare as the paucity of our knowl- MONG SNOO NVOINSWY HLNOS he Ree oat ve. | G 3ALv1d *f* EQUATOR =~ : in J 1 y , a A i} i] 1 all ee Map 4. Distribution of South American Comb Duck (Sarcidiornis carunculata) The portion enclosed by dotted line indicates apparent recent extension of range. SOUTH AMERICAN COMB DUCK 79 edge would suggest. It will probably be found commonly distributed in places that are particularly suited to it. Foop. Nothing recorded. CourtsHie AND Nest1ncG. No courtship, and no tendency to mate or nest have been observed in captive birds in the New York Zodlogical Gardens. Stratus. The apparent recent extension of its range to the north (British Guiana) is of interest. Foop Vautur. No information. Bewavior IN Captivity. The species was first received at the London Zoological Gardens in 1876. It has never bred, but was still living in 1883 (Sclater, 1883). It has also been kept in Berlin, and in the Buenos Aires Gardens. The New York Zoological Gardens received two males and one female, all im- mature when taken in November, 1918, near Barcelona, Venezuela (Crandall, Auk, vol. 36, p. 419, 1919). In June, 1919, one of the males killed the other one. The re- maining male which I observed in January, 1920, had the reputation of being one of the most pugnacious birds in the Gardens, and was kept in a pen by himself all winter. WHITE-WINGED WOOD DUCK ASARCORNIS SCUTULATA (S. Miter) (Plate 6) SYNONYMY Anas scutulata S. Miiller, Verhand. Land- en Volkenk., p. 159, 1839-44. Sarcidiornis leucopterus Blyth, Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. 18, p. 820, 1849. Casarca leucoptera Blyth in Jardine, Contrib. Ornith., p. 141, pl. 64, 1850. Anas leucoptera Hume and Marshall, Game-birds of India, vol. 3, pp. 147, 172, pl. 20, 1880. Tadorna scutulata Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 512. VERNACULAR NAMES English: Assam: White-winged Wood Duck Deo-hans DESCRIPTION Aputt Mate: Head and upper part of neck white, thickly spotted and mottled with black; black spots almost confluent on the dorsal aspect; lower part of neck glossy black, merging into the chest- nut brown of the lower parts; mantle black with greenish and purple reflections; breast and abdomen chestnut brown; under -tail-coverts blackish brown; back, rump, and upper tail-coverts blackish glossed with green; upper wing-coverts white; median wing-coverts lead color tipped with black so as to form a black band; quills olive brown to blackish, but secondaries having the outer web bluish lead color; tertials brown, the outer one being white with black margin on its outer web; under wing- coverts and axillaries white, the former mixed with some brown feathers; tail dark olive brown. Old males evidently become more metallic-colored on the mantle and more white about the head and neck, especially the throat and eye regions. Wing having a pronounced carpal knob. Bill dark yellow to orange, mottled with dusky spots, the nail being light horn color; legs and feet yellow or orange yellow, claws pale horny; iris yellow or orange yellow (collectors differ on this point). Baker (1908) noted that during the breeding season the base of the upper mandible becomes consider- ably swollen and the orange color deepens to a deep orange or orange red. According to him the iris is brown to blood-red in old birds. Wing 363 mm. to 401; tarsus 56 to 61; culmen 58.4 to 66. Weight 7.5 to 9 .5 pounds (3.8 to 4.3 kilograms); a very fat bird in captivity 9.75 pounds (4.87 kilograms). Aputt Frmate: Practically the same plumage as in male, but never becomes quite so highly glossed and colored. Bill pale dull lemon, rarely with orange tinge; black mottlings same as in male; base of upper mandible never swollen or red in color; iris brown, never red brown or blood-red (Baker 1908). Weight 4.75 to 6.75 pounds (2.1 to 3.6 kilograms). Wing 305 mm. to 355; tarsus 53 to 61; culmen 56 to 61. Youne: Very little recorded on immature plumages. Immature birds are much more brown on the lower parts, but with the black collar on the fore neck. WHITE-WINGED WOOD DUCK 4A ROOONTR, SCEYOLATA G- Mtv) ice. (Plate 6) s - i mah if ah Srvonray ¢ : Anus ay: & Muller, Verband. Land- en Volkenk., p. 169, 1889-44 Bireidiornis lencopterus Myth, Journ. Asiatic Soo, Bengal, vol. 18, p-BAO, 1g490 9 ou Posdres Lever piera Blyth in Jardine, Contrib. Oraithy p. 14h ply 64,1800, 9 Sik e Avice Leuocptera Home. snd Msrshail, Gasne-birds of India, vol. 8, poi 12, 20e oad 20, i Hiate. Hs \ = F< C 7 z Todorne scutvlaia Sclater, Proc, Zool. Soc. London, 1886, p. 518.* : a Vegnaconan Naaies © 7) Ne Brglich: Assam: b oe White-wirged Wood Duck - >" Deo-hane’y 7” abit DESCRIPTION . On ee Siege Mace: Hiaad ‘ands ebilor pact ot mock wi thickly opoetad anal exledenith saiaiuinal t ARE abetinet confiucet ov the sire] aapent, hower part of neck glomy black, inte the eligi ie a iets oa. Giantle black with gerenioh arid purple reflections; sand sbilomom’ ie. eodertalldeverts Nurkich ever: back, Hump, and upper tatRrovents biaeiiies cer conr ious. ts aocnca eth con 5 Fi Aig Wicd Soret) atte Sr ape tu ted. lust se~anearics baviag the opted Meee - ee ee ee al Hemp hie well Tika marge: oo he wnter web aide & A Sia PE! 80K eam acdiget Shh mem, Sarie Seiten: ag Gark ove Pei btey Af 6 po ie bed w nig! > ar sere wel ge ohio aie AOS A wee & flee. Fee eng & pogneet carpal Pp ie ee Svulal gato er hn ee ; halle ye Gecrcye vole, Lows pale borny; isin yellamr or crane yellow (collectors differ on Oils pe aleer (7008) gobsd thal during the beeding seasun the base of the upper mandible becomes : Shy ewelllen and the airsnge volok denpens to « deep orange or orange ted, According tothe &