OUSTALET’S GRAY DUCK 
■ ANAS OUSTALETI Salvadohi 
(Plate 21) 
Synontmy 
fAnas hoschas a. freycineti Bonaparte, Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris, vol. 43, 
p. 649, 1856 {nomen nudum). 
Anas oustaleti Salvadori, Bull. British Ornith. Club, no. 20, p. i, 1894. 
Veknacular Names 
English: Oustalet’s Gray Duck, Marianne Islands Duck, Ladrone Duck. 
Marianne natives (Chamorro language) : Nagai, Ngang or Ngaanga. 
DESCRIPTION 
Adult jMale and Feilale: A specimen in the U.S. National Museum (adult female, June 6, 1900) 
shows general similarity to the Hawaiian Duck, but it is much darker above, with the back, mantle 
and scapulars nearly black and the feathers narrowly edged with light brown. Salvadori compared 
the bird to Anas superciliosa. 
Top of the head brownish black, according to Hartert, having a slight greenish gloss. An indistinct 
blackish superciliary stripe is separated from the top of the head by a narrow pale line. Sides of the 
head and neck buff, streaked with dark brown; chin and throat immaculate. The speculum is bluish 
purple, very similar to that of the Hawaiian Duck, and never a pure metallic green as in Anas 
superciliosa. It is bordered above and below by a black hne, followed by a white band. Wings dark 
brown’, under wing-coverts and axillars white. 
Iris light seal brown. BiU slate-gray or perhaps yellow sparingly spotted with black. Legs and 
feet yellow or reddish yellow. 
Wing 242-265 mm.; culmen 49-55; tarsus 40-42. 
Young in Down: Two downy young secured by Seale have the general upper coloring brown, a 
buffy spot on each side of the rump, the throat, neck and general under coloring buffy, a wide and 
distinct superciliary hne of buff, a black line from the upper mandible through the eye, and a splotch 
of brown at the nape and another at the sides of the head below the ears. Upper mandible black, 
lower yellowish; feet brownish. 
Remarks; This species was tentatively placed next to Anas hoschas by Salvadori (1895) on account 
of the tendency of the central tail-feathers to curl up. Hartert’s series showed the central rectrices 
soft but not curled up, and the sexes not differing materially. The bird seems to me to have affin- 
ities with both the Hawauan and the Australian Ducks. 
DISTRIBUTION 
This species is known only from the islands of Guam and Saipan in the Marianne group, and has 
been recorded from there by Salvadori (1894a), Oustalet (1896) and Hartert (1898b). Matschie 
(1901) states that it is a breeding bird there but almost all the information we have is to be found 
