454 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



Ducklings in the down are brownish above, yellowish white below and 

 barred slightly on the sides. The crown is deep seal-brown and the sides 

 of the head and face, as well as the back of the neck, are decidedly cinna- 

 mon, but of a pale shade ; two whitish areas show on either side of the 



Fig. 232. Fig. 233. 



Foot znd Ursus o( Mareca siii/a(n'x. About Mareca sibilatrix. P. U. O. C. 7842. Young 



^ natural size. bird in down. Slightly reduced. 



rump and two more, one back of each downy wing, relieve the brown of 

 the back. 



Geographical Range. — Southern South America ; Patagonia ; the Falk- 

 land Islands. 



The fine series of this bird procured by the naturalists of the Princeton 

 Expeditions, embracing a large number of breeding birds of both sexes, 

 as well as three downy young ducklings, some material from the Museo 

 de La Plata and the series of twenty birds in the British Museum, form 

 the basis for the foregoing descriptions. 



The birds have a wide range even during the breeding season ; and 

 this period seems a long one. In northern Argentina and Paraguay, 

 which latter is about the northern limit of the range of this duck, eggs 

 have been collected in late November, while Mr. Hatcher and Mr. Col- 

 burn found the same duck breeding in southern Patagonia in late Decem- 

 ber and all through January. They breed in the Falkland Islands and 

 Captain King obtained the birds, which he described as new, on the Island 

 of Chiloe. 



The eggs vary from cream color to pale brown and Mr. Hudson has 

 written of pure white eggs collected by him. 



It is of interest to note that the birds which have been semi-domesti- 

 cated and have been bred for many years in the Zoological Gardens in 



