BLACK-BILLED WHISTLING DUCK. 395 



BLACK-BILLED WHISTLING DUCK.* 



Dendrocygna arbor ea. 



Anas arborea, Linn. — PI. enl. 804. 



Dendrocygna arborea^ Sw. 



The Whistling Duck is well known in Jamaica, 

 by the singular note which has conferred on it 

 its provincial name. This note uttered in its cre- 

 puscular flights to and from its feeding-places, 

 and also when alarmed, is peculiarly shrill, and 

 bears no small resemblance to the sound produced 

 by blowing forcibly over the pipe of a drawer- 

 key. 



It is much dreaded by those who plant Guinea- 

 corn ; in February, when this grain is in the milk, 

 the ducks in a compact flock dash forcibly into 

 the corn, striking down a large breadth, on which 

 they can stand, and eat the soft grain at ease. 

 But for this impetus, they could have no means 

 of reaching the panicle, from its loftiness; nor 

 of bringing down the stalk with their beaks, 

 from its firmness : nor, from its slenderness, would 

 their arboreal habits avail them to perch on it. 

 Numerous flocks of both young and old birds, 

 frequent the millet-fields from December till the 



* Length 21 inches, expanse'39, flexure 10, tail 3^, rictus 2\, tarsus 3^, 

 middle toe 2f. Intestine 54 inches, two caca, about 4 inches long. 

 Irides dark brown ; beak and feet iron-grey. Sexes exactly alike. 



