48 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A bird shot at Muang Fang, July 5, and another taken at Chiang 

 Mai, August 14, were carrying oviduct eggs ready to be laid. 



This duck has a characteristic appearance in flight, which assists in 

 identification : against the sky it seems to be black, and the out- 

 stretched neck is depressed to form an angle with the plane of the back. 

 Its call is a shrill whistle, which may be heard while the bird is flying or 

 perched in a tree. 



My specimens had the irides dark brown; the eyelids plumbeous, 

 edged yellow; the maxilla slaty, bluish toward the base, with the nail 

 blackish, and the commissure edged fleshy ; the mandible below bluish 

 fleshy, tipped and edged with dark slate; the interior of the mouth 

 white; the feet and toes plumbeous-gray, with the webs darker; the 

 claws slaty black, lighter at the base. 



The whistling teal has the head brown with a dark cap ; the back 

 dark brown, the feathers margined with rufous; the rump black; the 

 upper tail coverts dark rufous; the tail black; the underparts un- 

 marked rufous; the wings black with a large chestnut area at the 

 shoulder ; the underwing solid black. 



SARKIDIORNIS MELANOTOS (Pennant) 



Indian Comb Duck 



Anser melanotos Pennant, Indian zoology, 1769, pp. 12-13, pi. 11 (Ceylon). 

 Sarcidiornis melanolota, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1916, 



p. 134 ("Northern Siam"). 

 Sarkidiornis melanotus melanotics, Gyldenstolpe, Ibis, 1920, p. 772 ("Somewhere 



in northern Siam"). 

 Sarcidiornis melanota, Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 39 ( "Nan River, 



near Kampang, northern Siam"=Mae Wang river, near Lampang). 



Gyldenstolpe saw specimens of this duck in the garden of H. H. 

 Chao Kaeo Nawarat na Chiang Mai and was told that they had been 

 captured somewhere in "Upper Siam, probably at the neighbourhood 

 of Muang Pra Yao." As recently as 1937, 1 myself saw descendants of 

 these birds in the aviary of the late Chao. 



Riley recorded a specimen as taken by Dr. Hugh M. Smith at the 

 "Nan River, near Kampang, northern Siam." This is incorrect! 

 The bird, a female, was killed by W. Leigh Williams, Esq., on the Mae 

 Wang, near Lampang, March 21, 1928, and was presented to Dr. 

 Smith by E. Chappie, Esq. It is the only wild-taken example I have 

 seen from North Thailand. 



While I have never observed this duck, I have no doubt that it is 

 widely distributed in our provinces. It is well known to the northern 

 people everywhere as pet hong ("swan duck"). A man who lived be- 

 side a marsh between Chiang Mai and Lamphun told me that he had 

 once shot one there, and it was reported to occur at times on a large 



