232 Naturalist at Large 



head form. It is not unlikely that the skull was modified for 

 probing for and picking up aquatic vegetation. 



Most tantalizing of all the vast quantity of material which 

 has been brought to Cambridge and sorted out are the 

 remnants which prove that there are at least twelve more 

 animals represented by fragmentary bits, too incomplete 

 to make certain of their identity; hence at least there are 

 twelve more forms to encourage one to dig further, and 

 of course there may be a great many more than twelve. 



Shortly after the First World War Lord William Percy 

 came to spend a week end with us in Palm Beach. He ended 

 by staying well over a month and certainly he was a fascinat- 

 ing companion. A short, spare man with keen aquiline 

 features, he started as a brilliant barrister in London, rose 

 to be a Colonel with the Grenadier Guards in the war, was 

 badly wounded, and had been decorated with the D.S.O. 

 Now he was seeking refreshment in his avocation, which 

 was ornithology. He was particularly interested in the suc- 

 cessions of plumage in our many species of ducks. 



Our Florida dusky ducks fascinated him. He was a 

 wonderful shot and rapidly made up a superb series of speci- 

 mens. He was keen to find out something of the habits of 

 the little secretive masked duck, a bird which is widely 

 distributed but which has been very rare in collections. I 

 knew a place in Cuba where they were said to be found 

 and we sailed off to see if I had the story correctly. My 

 friend Mr. Carlos ("Charlie") Hernandez was then Post- 

 master General of the Island, and we joined forces with his 

 brother and camped in a big, aromatic tobacco barn — it 

 was only partially filled — near San Antonio de los Bafios. 



