138 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



The first record of this species for the isthmus was an immature 

 male taken March 30, 1949 (Wetmore, Auk, 1951, p. 526; the date 

 given as "May 29" in the original reference is in error). A band of 5 

 comb ducks, according to native hunters, had appeared on the 

 marshes on the Rio La Jagua, at the end of March 1949, and a few 

 days later on March 30 Baldomiro Moreno, our helper, shot one 

 near the La Jagua Hunting Club while night-hunting for pato real. 

 This was an immature male, with the comb small, very fat, and the 

 testes in resting stage. Later, on May 20 and 21, Karl Curtis saw 

 three comb ducks together and one flying alone. 



In Darien, on March 27, 1959, on the Rio Chucunaque, near the 

 mouth of the Rio Tuquesa, one that proved to be an adult male flew 



Fig. 24. — Head of American comb duck, pato crestudo, Sarkidiornis sylvicola, 

 male, to show the knob on the bill. 



overhead and presently returned to perch on an open branch in the 

 top of a tall guarumo. In silhouette and in manner of flight the 

 bird was so like the muscovy duck that I did not recognize it until it 

 alighted, when I could see the large comb on the bill and the white 

 underparts. In the tree the bird jerked and craned the extended neck 

 as the male Muscovy does when nervous or excited. I was told that 

 they were regular in occurrence here, but few seemed to distinguish 

 them from the ordinary pato real. Little is known of their habits 

 anywhere within their extensive range in South America. 



It is probable that the species will be found from time to time in 

 marshy areas adjacent to the lower Rio Bayano and the Rio Chico, 



