THE COMB DUCK. 275 



the neck with the feathers spare and pointed ; back and scapulars rich 

 browii, each feather very broadly edged with chestnut ; rump and upper 

 tail-coverts black; the central portion of the wing-coverts more or less 

 maroon ; remainder of the coverts, the quills and tail black ; the whole 

 lower plumage chestnut ; the breast paler ; under tail-coverts yellowish 

 white ; sides of the body and under wing-coverts with broad yellowish- 

 white streaks. 



The bill and other parts are coloured very similarly to the same parts of 

 D. javanica . 



Length 20 inches, tail 3, wing 9, tarsus 2*5, bill from gape 2*4. The 

 female is of much the same size. 



The Larger Whistling Teal is comparatively a rare bird in Burmah, 

 except in the northern portions of Pegu, where I found it very abundant 

 in the Engmah swamp, twenty-five miles south of Prome. Capt. Wardlaw 

 Ramsay procured it at Tonghoo ; and I observed it several times in the 

 paddy-fields near Kyeikpadein in Southern Pegu during the rains. I can 

 find no record of its occurrence in Tenasserim or Arrakan. 



It is met with over a considerable portion of India and Ceylon, and it 

 will probably be found in the Indo-Burmese countries. Elsewhere it has 

 a curious distribution ; for it is found in Madagascar and over the greater 

 part of South America. 



This species, so far as I had an opportunity of observing it, resembles 

 the preceding very closely in habits. 



D. arcuata, Cuv., is an allied species, which inhabits Java, the Philip- 

 pines and Australia. 



Genus SARCIDIOKNIS, Eyton. 



638. SARCIDIORNIS MELANONOTA. 

 THE COMB DUCK. 



Anser melanonotus, Pcnn. in Forst. 2nd. Zool. p. 21, pi. 11 ; Newton, S. F. viii. 

 p. 415. Sarcidiornis melanonotus, Jerd. B. 2nd. ii. p. 785 ; Hume, Nests 

 and Eggs, p. G-'iG ; id, S. F. iii. p. 192 j Anders. Ibis, 1874, p. 220 ; Bl. B. Burm. 

 p. 165 ; Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 472 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 486 ; 

 Hume, S. F. vii. p. 507, viii. p. 114; Hume 8f Marsh. Game Birds, iii. p. 91, 

 pi. ; Parker, S. F. ix. p. 486 ; Leggc, Birds Ceylon, p. 1063 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 246. 



Description. Male. Head and neck white, spotted with metallic black, 

 the spots more frequent on the crown and hind neck, and causing those 

 parts to be almost entirely black ; base of the neck and the whole lower 

 plumage white ; upper back, the whole of the wings, rump and upper taii- 



T2 



