190 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



(Steere Exp.) ; Masbate {Bourits and Worcester) ; Mindanao (M earns) ; Mindoro 

 (McGregor) ; Panay {Bourns & Worcester) ; Samar (Whitehead) ; Siquijor 

 (Steere Exp.) ; Ticao (McCh-egor). 



"Adult male and female. — General plumage brownish gray, almost 

 uniform, without any dark markings in the center of the feathers ; upper 

 part of head and upper part of nape blackish brown; superciliary stripe, 

 sides of head, throat, and sides of upper part of neck rufous; a blackish 

 brown band runs across the eyes from lores to occiput; back dark gray, 

 changing into brown on rump and upper tail-coverts; wing-speculum 

 glossy green, bounded anteriorly by a velvety black band at the tip of 

 greater wing-coverts and by a narrower white one at the tip of the last 

 row of median upper wing-coverts; posteriorly the speculum is bounded 

 by a velvety black, subapical band, and by a narrow, apical, white band ; 

 under wing-coverts and axillars white ; under parts brownish gray, deepen- 

 ing into brown on under tail-coverts; tail brown; colors of the bill and 

 feet not recorded, but apparently dark olive. Length, about 500 ; wing, 

 250; tail, 114; culmen, 51; tarsus, 43. 



''Young. — Similar to the adults, only much paler on the head and 

 throat, which are scarcely tinged with rufous; the speculum less bright, 

 and with some purple reflections." {Salvadori.) 



Iris brown ; bill dark blackish blue, its nail black ; legs and claws dark 

 brown. A male from Luzon measures: Length, 635; wing, 262; tail, 

 114; exposed culmen, 51; bill from nostril, 40; tarsus, 43; middle toe 

 with claw, 63. 



The Philippine mallard does not often occur in large numbers ; usually, 

 however, it may be found in pairs in tide creeks, small ponds, or other 

 suitable localities. 



"We found this fine mallard to be rare in all the localities visited by 

 us with the single exception of the region about the towTi of Milagros, 

 on the west coast of the Island of Masbate. In the last-mentioned district 

 it was very abundant, occurring in great flocks." (Bourns and Wor- 

 cester MS.) 



"Extraordinarily abundant "on the Abulug Eiver in northern Luzon in 

 March, 1906. Flocks of twenty-five to two hundred were constantly met 

 with on the lower river." (Worcester.) 



Genus POLIONETTA Gates, 1899. 



A wide yellow band across the tip of bill, otherwise like Anas from 

 which it is scarcely separable. 



