“Tree-Ducks” of the genus Dendrocygna. B3 
almost universally represented in tropical and warm-temperate regions 
of the globe. Its character is somewhat equivocal, as between An- 
serinae and Anatinae. I think it really belongs to the latter 
subfamily, in the vieinity of the Shieldrake group; with which ex- 
pression of my views I leave it in the position it has occupied in 
former editions of the Key, as also in the A.O. U. Lists.” (Key to 
N. A. B. Vol. 2, 5th ed. 1903, p. 906). 
In my “Osteology of Birds”, I placed the genus Dendrocygna 
with the Anatinae, after having compared the meagre osteological 
material I had, at the time the work was completed, with skeletons 
of other Anatidae (in: New York State Mus. Bull. 130, Albany, 
1909, p.: 339). 
The published descriptions of the plumages, external characters, 
distribution, and habits of these birds are quite full, and in many 
instances wholly accurate. The plumages of the birds, with cha- 
racters and colors of bills and feet, are most satisfactorily given 
in the Catalogue of Birds of the British Museum by SALVvADOoRIL. 
Several American ornithologists have published excellent descriptions 
of D. bicolor and D. autumnalis, including eggs and nests, etc. Such 
figures as have appeared up to the present time are, however, for 
the most part very indifferent, and quite unrecognizable in some 
instances. 
The figure of D. guttulata in the Catalogue of Birds of the 
British Museum is a long ways from a truthful representation of 
that species (Vol. 27, tab. 1). The figures given by DisGLes (Orn. 
Austr., p, 114, fig. 2, D. arcuata, and p. 144, fig. 1, D. eytoni) I have 
not as yet seen, as there seems to be no copy of that work in the 
United States; while those published by BAıkn of “D. fulva” and 
D. autumnalis are extremely poor (Birds N. Amer. p. 770, 1858; 
id., op. cit. ed. 1860, tab. 63, fig. 1, and D. autumnalis, p. 770, tab. 63, 
fig. 2). 
: Some few other figures of different species of Dendrocygna may 
be extant, but if so, I have not seen them. Beyond Eyron’s figure 
of the skeleton etc. of Dendrocygna arcuata cited above, and my 
figure of the eranium and part of the skeleton of the body of D. 
autumnalis (Rep. in “Osteology of Birds”, p. 312, figs. 39, 40), I do 
not know of any other figures giving any part of the anatomical 
structure of these birds. 
Taking into consideration, then, the little we know of the 
morphology of the birds of this genus; their external appearances 
1* 
