184 



The Goose-like Birds 



The distribution of the true Tree-Duck (D. viduata) is also very strange, as at 

 present accepted, being tropical South America and the West Indies, and tropi- 

 cal Africa and Madagascar, but here again is the possibility of two species being 

 confounded. The remaining species of the genus are more limited in their 

 distribution. 



The Fulvous Tree-Duck is a handsome bird, about twenty inches long, with 

 the back and scapulars black, the under parts cinnamon or fulvous, the flanks 

 marked with paler stripes; the head and neck are like the lower parts, and the 

 upper tail-coverts are white. The late Colonel Grayson, writing of this bird as 

 he observed it in western Mexico, says that although inhabiting the coast region 

 it is never found in the sea, being strictly a fresh-water Duck. It arrives at the 

 close of the rainy season in great numbers, frequenting fresh-water ponds and 

 lakes, where it feeds upon grain and seeds, often visiting the corn-fields at night 

 for grain. He did not procure the nest himself, although he was informed by 

 the natives that they nested on the ground among grasses, and not in trees. 

 This view is strengthened by the observations of Hudson, who met with it very 

 abundantly in eastern Argentina, where it makes its appearance in the spring, 

 in very large numbers, to breed in the marshes and on the pampas. Of the nests 

 he says: "So extremely social are these Ducks that when breeding they keep 

 together in large flocks. The nest is made of stems and leaves, on the water 

 among the weeds and aquatic plants; and sometimes large numbers of nests are 

 found close together, as in a gullery. The eggs are pure white, and each bird lays, 



I believe, ten or twelve, but I am 

 not sure about the exact number; 

 and I have so frequently found from 

 twenty to thirty eggs in a nest that 

 I am pretty sure that it is a common 

 thing for tw 7 o or three females to 

 occupy one nest." In India, Hunt 

 mentions the finding of but a single 

 nest, and this was placed in a large 

 hollow tree overhanging the water. 

 It contained seven sggs. 



Black-bellied Tree-Duck. In 

 the Rio Grande Valley in Texas 

 the Black-bellied Tree-Duck (D. au- 

 tumnalis} barely enters the United 

 States, its main distribution being 

 in middle Mexico and Central 

 America. It may be known by the 

 uniform black abdomen, the other 

 portions of the body being mainly 



reddish brown. The habits of this species, according to Colonel Grayson, are 

 similar to those of the preceding except that it is rather more nocturnal in pursuit 

 of its subsistence, visiting the dry corn-fields during the night in great numbers, 



FIG. 60. Black-bellied Tree-Duck, Dendrocygna 

 autumnnalis. 



