Birds of Celebes: Anatidae. gQ'j 



Adult male in breeding plumage. Head above glossy blackish brown; face, superciliary 

 region, sides of occiput, neck, and under-parts white, mottled with brown at 

 the back of the neck, finely vermiculated with dark brown on the sides of the breast 

 and body; round lower neck and jugulum a glossy black collar; under tail- 

 coverts tipped with glossy brown; upper-parts glossy bottle-green, very finely 

 speckled with pale brown, some violet reflections on the wings; middle part of 

 primaries and tips of secondaries white, tips of primaries brown; longer upper 

 tail-coverts white, vermiculated with brown; tail dark brown; under wing-coverts 

 dusky green (Java: v. Schierbrand — Nr. 10792). 



"Irides crimson; legs and feet greenish yellow, tinged with black, webs black" 

 (Kelham ciO); bill black. 



Female. With no pectoral collar, no brown on the under tail-coverts, and little or no white 

 on the primaries: top of head and back greenish drab, wing-coverts dark green; 

 secondaries tipped with white; forehead, face, neck, and under parts dull 

 white, barred with brown on neck and jugulum, faintly mottled or barred with pale 

 drab on the sides, with brown intermixed on forehead and hind neck, and with a 

 dark stripe through the eye (Java: v. Schierbrand — Nr. 10794). 

 "Irides dark brown; bill yellowish black" (Kelham c 10). 



Male in winter. "Similar to the female but always retains the conspicuous white patch on 

 the primaries" (Salvadori 2). 



Young male. "Similar to the female till the first spring" (Oates c 13). 



Young in down. See Salvadori 2. 



Measurements. Wing (6 specimens) 161 — 171 mm; tail ca. 70; tarsus 24; middle toe with 

 claw 40; exposed culmen 22. 



Eggs. Oval; delicate ivory-white, very smooth; size 39 — 44.5x29.7 — 35 (Hume c 18). 



Nest. In holes in trees, in ruins, or a floating nest in the water; said to nest sometimes in 

 chimneys in China (cf. Hume c 18 and Sty an c 19). 



Distribution. India (Latham, etc. a 1, c 8, c 18); Ceylon (Legge etc. e 8); Andamans (W. 

 Ramsay & Wimberley d 1, 2); Bunnah (Oates c 13); Tenasserim (Davison c 7, 

 Darling 2); Cliina (David c 6, Styan c 19), Hainan (Styan c 21); Cochin China 

 (St. Pierre 2); Malay Peninsula (Cantor 2, Kelham c 10); Sumatra (e 3); Java 

 (Reinwardt, etc. c 4, c 12, 2); Borneo (Grabowsky c i4, c i7, Wallace 2); Philip- 

 pine Islands — Luzon (Cuming c 9, Maitland-Heriot 2); Celebes — Minahassa 

 (Faber c 5, ell, British Museum 2). 



An example of the Indian Pygmy Goose, or Goose-teal, as it is more 

 commonly called, was contained in a collection of birds from Celebes presented 

 to the Berlin Museum by von Faber some twenty years ago, and was placed 

 on record by Prof. Reichenow (c 5). In answer to inquiries by Prof. W. 

 Blasius as to the Celebesian origin of this and other skins, Reichenow was 

 able to confirm his former statement (c 11). Recently Count Salvadori has 

 recorded a second specimen from Celebes (Manado, collector unknown) in the 

 British Museum, so that there can be no doubt about the right of the species 

 to be included in the Celebes list. Probably it is only a winter visitant there, 

 perhaps only an occasional one. David (c 6) and Styan (c 19) say it is a 

 summer visitant to China, and of course these birds proceed somewhere to the 

 south in winter. In Borneo and the Philippines it seems to be of almost as 

 rare occurrence as in Celebes. 



109* 



