DENDROCYGNA. 189 



118. Dendrocygna viduata. 

 White-faced Dlxk. 



Dendrocygna viduata (Linn.), Syst. Nat. i. p. 205, 1766 (Cai-tagena) ; 



Cab. in Scliomb. Reis. Guian. iii. p. 762, ISl'S ; Brown, Canoe and 



Camp Life, p. 105, 1876 (Annai) ; Salvin, Ibis, 1886, p. 172; 



Salvacl. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 145, 1895 (Rupurumi River); 



Beebe, Our Search for a Wilderness, p. 355, 1910 (Abarv River) ; 



Brabourne & Chubb, B. S. Amer. i. p. 54, no. 507, 1912. 

 ?Dendrocijgna fulva Beebe, Our Search for a Wilderness, p. 355, 1910 



(Abary River). 



*' Wicissi Duck" {Broicn). 



Adult male. Fore part of head and lower throat white ; nape, 

 hind-neck, and a band across the throat black like the lower back, 

 tail, primary and secondary quills, axillaries, under wing-coverts, 

 abdomen, and under tail-coverts ; sides of the body barred with 

 black and white ; mantle, lesser upper wing-coverts, and upper 

 breast rich chestnut, becoming paler on the back, which is barred 

 with dark brown, and buff on the scapulars; median wing-coverfs 

 and innern ost secondaries bronze-brown. 



Total length 3G5 mm., culmen 47, wing 212, tail 55, tarsus 50. 



The description of the male is taken from a bird obtained 

 on the Great Savannas in 1894. 



Adult female. Is like the adult male in colour, but rather 

 smaller. Wing 199 mm. 



Breeding- season. Unknown in British Guiana. 



Nest. " Supposed to nest on the edges of the bogs '^ [Schom- 

 hurgh) . 



Eggs. Undescribed from British Guiana. 



Range in British Guiana. Upper Takutu Mountains, Great 

 Savannas [McConnell collection)', Aunai [Whitelg)', liupuiiuni 

 Iliver (^Brown) ; Abary River [Beebe). 



E.ctralinntal Range. West India Islands, South America 

 generally to Argentina. 



Habits. Schomburgk remarks (Reis. Guian. i. p. 407) : — The small 

 vi.s-is-si ducks with ihcir whistling call seemed bound to be close to 

 us; as soon as we were discovered by them one of our native 

 companions at once jumped into the water uj) to his neck from 

 where he continued to send well-aimed arrows into the dense flocks 

 of these ducks. If they were flying liigh and could see the arrow 



