54 
ANAS OUSTALETI 
in A. Seale’s Report of a Mission to Guam (1901, p. 25). According to this observer the species is 
not uncommon throughout the entire year and nests on the swamps and streams of Guam. It has 
also been reported for Guam by Salford (Contr. U.S. Nat. Herbarium, vol. 9, p. 80, 1905). More 
recently it was mentioned by Provazek from the northern islands (?) (Die Deutschen Marianne, 
Leipzig, 1913). 
GENERAL 
I HAVE not been able to find out anything about the habits of this duck. Dr. Henry 
E. Crampton, who visited the Marianne Islands in 1921, wrote me that he did not 
meet with it in the interior regions of the several islands which he visited. He thinks 
that, owing to the larger population on Guam, and the lack of suitable areas for the 
birds, the species is probably more common on islands to the north, especially 
Saipan, where there are marshes. Dr. Crampton does not think that imported 
mammal pests have diminished its numbers. Dr. W. E. Salford, of the U.S. Na- 
tional Herbarium, tells me that this duck has no natural enemies, as there are no 
birds of prey on the islands except a small owl. Dr. W. E. Weston, of Harvard Uni- 
versity, spent a month upon Guam in 1918 and did not see any ducks, but he was 
told about the bird by the natives, and learned its native name. 
A letter just received (June, 1923) from Mr. H. G. Hornbostel, collecting at 
Guam for the Bishop Museum of Honolulu, gives the following information. He 
tells me that the duck is found only on Guam, Saipan, and Tinian and is now 
very rare, for there are no laws to prevent “unnecessary” bird slaughter. It lives 
in the interior, and in Guam is found only along the valley of the Talafofo River. 
My informant adds that he does not know the number of eggs laid by this duck, 
but it breeds in tall grass along the river at the end of the rainy season (January 
and February). 
