118 DENDROCYGNA VIDUATA 



Iris dark brown (Salvadori, 1895). Bill black, occasionally a gray band behind the nostrils. Feet 

 lead-gray to ashy gray. 



Total length 420-500 mm.; wing, 205-220; bill 45-48; tarsus 47-48 (Reichenow, 1900). 



Adult Female: Similar to male. 



Immature Bird (in Museum of Comparative Zoology) : No black on the head, nor has it any of 

 the white face markings. The crown is dark gray, and the sides of the head rusty gray. The rich 

 brown of the hind neck is lighter, and there is no black on the lower parts, which are light gray, 

 lightly barred with darker gray. The upper surface is nearly similar to that of the adult. 



Young in Down: A specimen in the Tring Museum has the typical pattern of a Tree Duck with a 

 yellow bar across the occiput and large yellow patches on wings, sides, scapular areas and sides of 

 rump. All the light parts are light sulphur-yellow in color and the dark parts brown to black. A 

 specimen hatched at Sandringham, England (Tring Museum), lacks the black band across the lower 

 part of the face and has the white band under the eye very obscure. 



Variation: There is a wide range of variation among individuals in the arrangement of the black 

 and white patches on chin and throat. The black may be continuous over a large area, or broken 

 all along the throat by a white patch. The crown and other white areas are often stained with 

 brown. 



DISTRIBUTION 



This species is found in both the New and the Old World, inhabiting the tropical regions of South 

 America and Africa. The northernmost limit of its occurrence in the New World is Cuba, and there 

 it is only very rare (Gundlach, 1875). Cory was by no means certain that it had not 

 been introduced in the island (Cory, Auk, vol. 5, p. 61, 1888), but it probably arrived 

 there on one of those sporadic excursions, common to this species. It has, however, been found in 

 Barbados, where Feilden (1899) saw a flock of twenty-seven in 1887; and it has been recorded also 

 from Trinidad (Leotaud, 1S66; F. M. Chapman, 1894). In Central America it also occurs only spo- 

 Trinidad radically. Specimens have twice been seen and taken at Bebedero, Costa Rica (Carriker, 



Costa Rica 1910), and von Berlepsch (1887) speaks of comparing a South American example with 

 Panama on e from Panama. I have been unable to trace this reference any further. 



In South America the White-faced Tree Duck seems to be most common in the central and eastern 

 sections. It must be rare in Colombia, for it is not recorded by F. M. Chapman (1917), though the 

 Colombia British Museum has a specimen from Bogota. As far as I know there is no record at all 

 Peru for Ecuador, though the species probably occurs there. It has been variously recorded 



from Peru. Tschudi (1845-46) found it on the coast south of Lima, between Chorillos and 

 Lurin, and Bartlett (Sclater and Salvin, 1866) found it in eastern Peru on the lower Ucayali River. 

 It is probably not rare in eastern Bolivia though the only record I can find for this country is the 

 Bolivia old one of d'Orbigny (1842). It does not appear to extend much south of the Buenos 



Argentina Aires region in Argentina, though it breeds in the Chaco (Hartert and Yenturi, 1909), 

 and has been taken in Jujuy Province (Lonnberg, 1903). It has also been met with in Tucuman 

 (Burmeister, 1860), in Cordoba (Schultz,,/?rfe Dabbene, 1910), rarely in the La Plata region (Sclater 

 and Hudson, 1889), and even in Buenos Aires (Durnford, 1878). 



East and north of the La Plata it is more abundant. It unquestionably inhabits Uruguay (Tre- 



moleros, 1920) and is found in southeastern Brazil in Rio Grande do Sul (H. and R. von Ihering, 



Urueuav 1907), in Parana (H. and R. von Ihering, 1907) and on the Rio Parana (von Pelzeln, 



1868-71. Azara (1805) found large flocks in Paraguay, and since his time it has 



