FULVOUS TREE-DUCK 139 



bering two or three hundred are seen in the cold 

 season. Their migrations are very irregular, and 

 sometimes they are excessively abundant in a district 

 one year and absent from it the next. When disturbed 

 they utter a loud musical trumpeting cry, in three 

 notes, the last with a falling inflexion ; and their 

 wings being much longer proportionately than in 

 the black-necked species, they rise with greater ease 

 and have a much freer and an almost soundless 

 flight. 



Concerning their breeding-habits Mr. Gibson 

 observes that the nest is usually placed on the 

 ground at some distance from the water. It is 

 about a foot and a half high, made of mud and 

 rushes ; the hollow, which is rather deep, is lined 

 with dry grass. 



The eggs are eight or nine in number ; smooth, 

 white, and rounder than those of Cygnus nigricollis. 



FULVOUS TREE-DUCK 



Dendrocygna fulva 



Chestnut-red, top of head darker, with black line down the nape ; 

 back black on the upper portion, banded with chestnut ; wings and 

 tail black ; lesser wing-coverts dark chestnut ; upper tail-coverts 

 white ; flanks chestnut, banded with black and white ; bill and feet 

 black ; length 18, wing 8.5 inches. 



THIS Duck, the well-known Pato silvon (Whistling 

 Duck) of the eastern Argentine country, is found 

 abundantly along the Plata and the great streams 



