FULVOUS TREE DUCK 135 



flocks of Dendrocygna viduata (von Heuglin, 1873). A. L. Butler (1905) shot one 

 Fulvous from a flock of White-faces. On ornamental waters one sees the Tree Ducks 

 dotted about the margin, but the different species usually form separate groups. 

 In the discussion of the nesting habits of these birds mention will be made of a very 

 interesting habit of depositing the eggs in the nests of other species of ducks. 



Voice. To one who has seen Fulvous Tree Ducks only pinioned and in parks, 

 they appear to be extremely silent birds, and this trait is also found in the wild birds. 

 But when a flock rises there is a sudden ringing chorus of whistling voices (P. L. 

 Sclater and Hudson, 1889). The flocking-calls are described as like "the crackling 

 of rain upon a hot iron plate " (Gibson, 1920) ; as a long " squealing whistle " (F. M. 

 Chapman, 1908); and as a "high, short-cut whistle" (von Heuglin, 1873). In one 

 case (Holub and von Pelzeln, 1882), the note is spoken of as resembling that of 

 the African Red-bill (Anas erythrorhyncha) . Finn (1919) says the birds are able 

 to modify their voices almost like singing birds, and that they can utter a whistling 

 cackle or a subdued twitter. So far as is known both sexes have an identical note, 

 though very possibly there is a slight divergence, because of the somewhat different 

 structure of the trachea in the male and female (Heinroth, 1918). 



Food. Hume and Marshall (1879) have given by far the most careful details as to 

 the stomach-contents. They found that the bulk of the food consisted of rice, but 

 that the birds were miscellaneous feeders, and consumed all kinds of aquatic seeds, 

 bulbs, leaf -shoots, and buds, grass, and rush, as well as small shells, insects, worms, 

 and larvae; in one case even a tiny frog. Other authors, too, have noticed their habit 

 of feeding on rice, either wild or cultivated, and on corn, not only in India (Finn, 

 1915), but also in Mexico (Lawrence, 1874) and presumably in Africa. A very re- 

 markable and hardly credible statement is that of Herrera (1888) who claims in 

 Mexico to have observed great quantities of decomposing remnants of fish under 

 the trees where the birds were perching. Numbers of young were running about in 

 this refuse and regaling themselves on what the adult birds had left. On the whole 

 the species is vegetarian, subsisting chiefly on seeds of various kinds. 



Courtship and Nesting. Throughout its entire range the nesting period of this 

 species is distinctly later than that of most ducks. In California, where they do not 

 ordinarily arrive before June 1, the young are not seen much before July 8 (Grinnell, 

 Bryant and Storer, 1918). The earliest date seems to be that given by Barnhart 

 (1901), who took a set on April 28, and others between May 5 and 14. Lawrence 

 (1874) writes of having found young unable to fly, in northwestern Mexico, as late 

 as November, and considers this as a second or third brood. Gibson's (1920) experi- 

 ences show the laying period in Buenos Aires to be between November 19 and Feb- 



