Malayan Ornithology. 197 



brown, daslied with black and chestnut streaks ; the abdomen 

 and vent chestnut^ richly marked with irregular black and 

 white bars ; under tail-coverts white, irregularly marked with 

 dark brown ; wing- quills bluish black, the terminal portions 

 chestnut, and the extreme tips whitish. 



Dendkocygna javanica (Sykes). The Whistling Teal. 



This bird may be called the Duck of the Malayan peninsula. 



Though a migrant, it is found at certain seasons throughout 

 all the Malay States; and I do not believe its breeding- 

 grounds can be far noi'th of lat. 5° N., as the migration from 

 the lower or southern half of the peninsula does not take 

 place until late in June, and a few months later the birds are 

 back again. During the winter months, or, to speak more 

 correctly, during the north-east monsoon, these Ducks collect 

 in large flocks on the jheels and Hooded paddy-fields. InPerak 

 I found them particularly partial to small weedy lakes sur- 

 rounded by thick jungle ; and at one of these, near Saiyong, I 

 used to see them literally in hundreds from February to April ; 

 but towards the end of the following month they got very 

 restless, and by the middle of June most of them had disap- 

 peared, probably having gone north to breed. 



I think there is little doubt that some few remain to nest 

 near the banks of the Perak river, in the vicinity of Kwala 

 Kangsar, as at the end of June, after the main body had 

 left, I occasionally came across stragglers in the ruddy 

 breeding-plumage. Moreover Mr. Hugh Low, H.B.M.'s 

 Resident at Perak, told me that the natives brought into 

 Kwala Kangsar young birds but a few weeks old, assuring 

 him that they had been caught in the neighbourhood. This 

 happened in January or February ; so I suppose the birds 

 breed from August or September till early in the year — that 

 is, during the rainy season. 



One cannot base conclusions on the habits of semidomes- 

 ticated individuals ; but it is worthy of notice that several of 

 these Whistling Teal which, a few years ago, were turned 

 out with clipped wings on the artificial lake in the Botanical 

 Gardens at Singapore, though, having perfectly recovered the 



