374 TREE DUCKS 



TREE DUCKS 



Subfamily Dendrocygninae 



Black-Bellied Tree Duck 



Dendrocygna autumnalis aiitumnalis 

 (den-dro-sig-na, aw-tum-nal-is) 



Colour Plate No. 31. Downy Young No. 35. 



SCIENTIFIC NAME 



Dendrocygna, from Greek, dendron, meaning a tree, and cygnus, Latin, meaning 

 a swan; autumnalis, Latin, meaning of the period of harvest, of autumn. 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



Autumnal tree duck; cornfield duck; long-legged duck; summer duck. 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULTS, BOTH SEXES. Head. Forehead and crown, cinnamon brown; sides of 

 head, ashy grey; chin and throat, whitish; narrow whitish ring around eye; hind- 

 head and hindncck, black; lower foreneck, pale cinnamon brown; eye, brown; bill, 

 light red, orange above and around nostril; nail, light bluish. Body. Back, chest and 

 upper breast, light cinnamon brown, scapulars, darker brown, with cinnamon 

 edgings; rump, black; breast and sides, black, clearly defined against cinnamon 

 brown of chest; belly, black, spotted with white; feet, pinkish white, clumsy, 

 heavy, and long; craws, long. Tail and upper coverts, black; under coverts, white, 

 spotted with black. Wings. Lesser coverts, pale brown; middle coverts, ashy white; 

 greater coverts, ashy white to white; secondaries, black; primaries, basally white, 

 terminally black, with outer webs of a few primaries white near tips, outer pri- 

 mary (see Glossary) all black; tertials, cinnamon brown; lining and axillars, black. 



JUVENILE. During first autumn and winter the juvenile is somewhat like the 

 adult, but the pattern is less distinct, the brown shades of the upperparts are re- 

 placed by paler brown; underparts, greyish buff, instead of brown and black as 

 in the adult; bill, dusky; feet, dark reddish. Fully adult plumage is probably as- 

 sumed after the first postnuptial moult during the following summer. 



SPECIMEN IDENTIFICATION 



See Fulvous Tree Duck. 



FIELD MARKS 



ON THE WATER OR IN FLIGHT. 



The sexes are alike and are readily recog- 

 nized by the cinnamon-brown upperparts, 

 sharply contrasting black sides and breast 

 and very long legs. These birds are fre- 

 quently seen walking on land and, when 

 alighting, they do so on land and then 

 wade into the water; on alighting the 

 neck is stretched down until the bill al- 

 most touches the toes. In flight they 

 move in line, and the white wing-patches 



