234 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXXVI, 



(526) Querquedula cyanoptera ( Vieill.). 



Anas cyanoptera Vieill., Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., V, 1816, p. 104 (Rio de la 

 Plata and Buenos Aires). 



Querquedula cyanoptera Hellm., P. Z. S., 1911, p. 1209 (Sipi). 



Abundant in the Cauca Valley. Four males taken from Dec. 30 to 

 April 12, have numerous round, black spots on the breast, sides and flanks, 

 but in four other males taken in January, these marks are nearly or wholly 

 absent. Their relation to age or season I have been unable to determine. 



Cali, 16; Palmira, 1. 



(533) Marila nationi {Sol. & Sah.). 

 Fuligula nationi Sol. & Salv., P. Z. S., 1877, p. 522 (Lima, Peru). 



This duck, of which the two specimens in the British Museum appear to 

 be the only ones hitherto in collections, proves to be a common species in 

 the marshes of the Cauca Valley near Cali, where six males and eight fe- 

 males were secured in January, February and May. Doubtless it is a per- 

 manent resident. 



This fine series together with Wied's types of "Anas erythropthalma" 

 and five specimens^ of the South African M. brunnea, enable me satisfac- 

 torily to determine the inter-relationships of these interesting birds (cf. 

 Cat. Bds. B. M., XXVII, p. 353). 



Although Wied's types, collected at Lagoa do Braco, near Villa de Bel- 

 monte in 1815-17 were mounted and are somewhat faded through exposure 

 to light, they are evidently specifically identical with " Nyroca brunnea" 

 Eyton (1838) which is therefore a pure synonym of "Anas erythropthalma" 

 (Wied). 



The Brazilian birds, in spite of their long exposure to light, differ re- 

 markably little from recently collected African skins, while the male type 

 agrees minutely with a mounted African specimen which has been on ex- 

 hibition for over thirty years. The female type is more rusty below than 

 African females, a difference apparently due to that type of rusty coloration 

 which is frequently found in the Anatidae. 



With but two specimens at his disposal, Salvadori {I. c.) was uncertain 

 whether or not nationi was separable from brunnea (= erythropthalma). 



I Including one from the National Museum and two, collected by George L. Harrison, Jr. at Lake 

 Nairasha in 1904, from the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. 



