FAMILY ANATIDAE 



133 



In the early morning of March 4, 1948, on the Rio Santa Maria, 

 above the mouth, I saw about 20 resting on an open sandbar exposed 

 by low tide, some asleep and some preening. From a distance they 

 resembled small geese. Later, as the water level rose with the incom- 

 ing tide, the flock took flight toward distant mangrove swamps. One 



Fig. 22. — Black-bellied tree duck, guichichi, Dendrocygna autumnalis mitumnalis. 



taken a few days later, an immature bird, came flying slowly past me 

 at the Cienaga Macana, as I stood in water to my waist, and alighted 

 on a growth of water hyacinth. I waded slowly toward it through 

 the sticky mud, expecting each moment that it would fly, but it stood 

 watching with head erect, flicking its wings alternately until I was 

 close enough for a shot. In June 1953 I noted these ducks regularly 

 in pairs on the Rio San Pablo, below Sona, Veraguas ; a female taken 

 on June 2 was about to lay. Here they rested on sandbanks and also 

 perched in trees. 



