98 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



This duck has the forepart of the head entirely white, the lower 

 neck chestnut, the back of the head and neck, lower back, and abdo- 

 men black, the upper back brown, and the sides whitish buff barred 

 with black. The tarsus is like that of the fulvous tree-duck. 



DENDROCYGNA ARBOEEA (Linnaeus) 



WEST INDIAN TREE-BUCK, YAGTJASA, YAGTJASA COLQRABA, CANARB 

 SIFFIEUR, GINGEON 



Anas arborea Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 128 (America). 



Gingeon, Buffon, Hist. Nat. Ois., vol. 9, 1783, pp. 176-181 (part; habits). 



Canard Siffieur, de St. Doiningue, Daubenton, Planch. Enl., no. 804. 



Canard Siffieur, Descourtilz, Voy. Nat., vol. 2, 1S09, pp. 252-254 (Riviere 

 Estere). 



Dendrocycna viduata, Ciferri, Segund. Inf. An. Est. Nac. Agr. Moca, 1927, 

 p. 6 (listed). 



Anas arborea, Hitter, Naturh. Reis. Westind. Insel Hayti, 1836, p. 157 (Haiti, 

 specimen). 



Dendrocygna arborea, Cory, Birds Haiti and San Domingo, March, 1885, pp. 

 166-167 (specimens) ; Cat. West Indian Birds, 1S92, p. 87 (Haiti, Dominican 

 Republic).— Tristram, Cat. Coll. Birds Bel. H. B. Tristram, 1889, p. 270 

 (Dominican Republic, specimen). — Tippenhauer, Die Insel Haiti, 1892, pp. 318, 

 323 (listed).— Verrux, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1909, p. 355 (com- 

 mon).— Beebe, Zool. Soc. Bull., vol. 30, 1927, p. 138; Beneath Tropic Seas, 1928, 

 p. 218 (Source Matelas). — Bond, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 80, 

 1928, p. 491 (Etang Miragoane).— Danforth, Auk, 1929, p. 361 (Laguna del 

 Salodillo, Les Salines, Gonai'ves, Grand Goave, Etang Miragoane, Artibonite). 



Resident; fairly common in the lowlands. 



Former distribution of the tree-duck (frontispiece) in the Do- 

 minican Republic is somewhat uncertain, but to-day the section 

 surrounding Samana Bay, particularly the area near San Lorenzo 

 Bay, seems to be that where the species is most common. W. L. 

 Abbott secured specimens there on July 26 and 30, and September 10, 

 1916, and forwarded a female from Sanchez February 22, 1919. He 

 reports tree-ducks as fairly numerous at Lake Enriquillo October 

 1 to 6, 1919. On May 6, 1927, while wading in a recently flooded 

 swamp five miles east of Sanchez, Wetmore flushed two tree-ducks 

 in a wooded area where water was overflowing green vegetation 

 growing in the shade of trees. The birds rose heavily with a low 

 quack and flying low under the branches passed rapidly out of 

 sight. Danforth reports them common at Laguna del Salodillo, 

 near Copey, June 26, 1927, where he shot twelve. Two had small 

 seeds in their stomachs. 



In Haiti Bartsch recorded the tree-duck on April 3, 1917, near 

 Glore on the fitang Saumatre, and saw it again at Trou Caiman on 

 April 4. Abbott shot specimens at the fitang Saumatre on March 7, 



