BLACK-BILLED WHISTLING DUCK. 395 



BLACK-BILLED WHISTLING DUCK. 

 Dendrocygna arborea. 



Anas arborea, LINN. PI. enl. 804. 



Dendrocyyna 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 caeca, about 4 inches long. 

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



