38 BULLETIN" 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Sassi's, expressed himself as follows : ^^ " In view of the fact that 

 the speculum color appears to be a character of very doubtful value,, 

 and because birds with green specula have been noted in South 

 Africa * * * l have thought it best not to recognize A. u. rii-p- 

 felli from northeastern Africa (Shoa)." 



I quite agree with Phillips that the speculum color is not a de- 

 pendable character, but the lighter color of the abdomen in undulata 

 and darker in ruppelli seems to be a fairly stable criterion. I have 

 seen but one South African example (M.C.Z. 11654) and it is very 

 much lighter than the Abyssinian birds. Specimens from Tangan- 

 yika, Kenya Colony, and Uganda are intermediate in this respect 

 as they are in range. I feel therefore, that it is possible to recognize 

 two forms of this duck although they are not well defined. 



Doctor Phillips erroneously reports the present specimens in his 

 work ^- as coming from the Amssi Plateau, undoubdedly intended 

 to be Arussi Plateau. 



The characters on which the two races are said to be distinguished 

 (according to Neumann) are as follows : 



A. undulata riqjj^elli. — Speculum of wing blue-green, reflecting 

 according to the light from bluish green to purplish blue or pure 

 purple; underparts of body darker than in undulata, 



A. undulata undulata. — Speculum green, reflecting from green to 

 blue, but not to purple; underparts of body much lighter, whiter, 

 than in riippelli. Also the scale-like marginations of the body 

 feathers are said to be more distinct in this form than in ruppelli. 



ANAS CRECCA Linnaeus 



Anas crecca Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, p. 126, 1758 : Europe ; restricted 

 type locality, Sweden. 



Specimens collected: 



Two adult males, Adis Abeba, Ethiopia, December 31, 1911. 



Both specimens are badly stained with rust, making comparison 

 with others difficult. One (U.S.N.M. 213002) has quite a number of 

 dark greenish-blue feathers around and behind the eyes while the 

 other (U.S.N.M. 243003) has very few. The former also has a 

 narrow frontal V of dark feathers along the forehead at the base of 

 the bill, the two horns of the V projecting backwards more than half 

 way to the ej^es but failing to form superciliary lines by virtue of 

 their incompleteness. 



Specimens from central China (Szechwan) average slightly 

 smaller than European birds but the extremes in both groups are 

 approximately the same. 



«i Nat. Hist, of the Ducks, vol. 2, p. 115. 

 «=Vol. 2, p. 115. 



