70 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Rio Negro. On January 31, 1921, when I visited the Lagima Cas- 

 tillos, near San Vicente, Rocha, the great birds were common but 

 were too wary to permit approach, so that in the end no specimens 

 were obtained. On the wing the birds form a beautiful picture 

 from the contrast in color between the black neck and the snow white 

 body. As they pass they may utter low honking calls suggesting 

 those of geese. 



CAIRINA MOSCHATA (Linnaeus) 



Anas moschata Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1758, p. 124. ("Brasilia.")" 

 The Muscovy duck was fairly common in the wilder sections of the 

 Chaco where lagoons offered permanent water during the dry season 

 of winter. The first noted were seen on August 13, 1920, near the 

 Riacho Pilaga, a few leagues south of the Rio Pilcomayo in the 

 Territory of Formosa, Argentina. As two rose from a marshy 

 lagoon and passed me, beating heavily against a strong wind, I shot 

 and wounded one. The birds made a short circle and alighted on a 

 large horizontal limb of a quebracho tree growing in the open, where 

 they rested for some time. On this occasion I had the misfortune 

 to lose the crippled bird in a dense tract of monte. A single one of 

 these ducks was observed at frequent intervals in open water on a 

 large lagoon, and when alarmed swam out into growths of cat-tails 

 and hid. It was shot on August 17 and proved to be an immature 

 male. Another dead bird was examined in possession of some 

 Indians at this same point. 



At Kilometer 80, west of Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay, from Sep- 

 tember 7 to 17 these great ducks were common in flocks of three to 

 a dozen about lagoons densely grown with sedges and rushes, where 

 pools of open water w^ere small and infrequent. Conditions were 

 somewhat similar to those frequented many times by mallards, 

 though in this case the locality may have been chosen through neces- 

 sity, as it was near the end of the dry season and all lagoons were 

 greatly reduced in area. When alarmed the Muscovies rose readily 

 in spite of their weight and flew off low over the tops of the dense 

 groves of palms that surrounded the marshes. Often instead of 

 continuing to other lagoons, after a flight of a few yards the birds 

 alighted on the larger limbs of some dead deciduous tree standing 

 among the palms, where they rested in company. It was a source of 

 continual surprise to me to flush them from such locations. I found 

 that their claws were curved and sharp pointed as an aid in a firm 

 grasp on the limbs. 



The flight of the Muscovy duck is heavy and rather slow. At each 

 stroke of the wings the white shoulders of adult birds flash promi- 



" Linnaeus gives the type locality of tbe present species as " India." Berlepsch 

 and Hartert (Nov. Zool., vol. 9, April, 1902, p. 131) have corrected this to "Brasilia" 

 as the species in a wild state is known only from the New World. 



