BLACK-BILLED TREE DUCK 169 



bill dark olive-green (Blaauw, 1912). This plumage, which I saw in the Leyden Museum, has the 

 Tree Duck type of pattern and is very much like that of the downy young of Dendrocygna javanica 

 but more tinged with yellowish. The white body- and wing-patches are very prominent. 



DISTRIBUTION 



The Antillean Whistling Duck is resident in the West Indies and is not known to occur with cer- 

 tainty in any other region. Burmeister (1856) early recorded it for Brazil, but he must have meant 

 Dendrocygna discolor or some other species. More recently Rovirosa (1887) has stated „ . 

 that it is more abundant than Dendrocygna bicolor in the Macuspana region of Tabasco, 

 Mexico. This author probably confounded the present species with Dendrocygna autumnalis, though 

 it is not altogether unlikely that the West Indian form may occur on the mainland. But it has never 

 been discovered in Florida, though in the Bahamas it is not uncommon and resident p . 

 especially on the larger islands (Cory, 1890) such as Andros (Cory, 1890; Riley, 1905; 

 Bonhote, 1903) and Great Inagua (Bryant, Proc. Boston, Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 11, p. 70, 1866; Riley, 

 1905). It has also been found not uncommon and breeding on San Salvador or Wat- _ . 



ling's Island (Todd and Worthington, 1911). In Cuba the species is said to be common _ 



Tamaica 

 and breeding (Gundlach, 1875; Rodrigues, 1917) and the same is true of Jamaica 



(Gosse, 1847; March, 1864; Newton, 1881). It has been repeatedly met on the Isle of Pines (Bangs 



and Zappey, 1905; Todd, 1916), and is reported to be resident on Grand Cayman Grand 



(English, 1916). It is also fairly common in Hayti (Gosse, 1847; Cory, 1885) and in Cayman 



Santo Domingo (A. E. and A. H. Verrill, 1909; Cherrie, 1896; Cory, 1885). Gundlach Hayti 



(1878) states that it is not uncommon in Porto Rico, especially at Mayaguez and Porto Rico 



Arecibo, where it is plentiful. Taylor (l~bis, ser. 1, vol. 6, p. 172, 1864) has also recorded it from the 



island, but Wetmore (1916) did not find it, and thinks it must have become very rare. 



In the Virgin Islands the present species was found on Virgin Gorda (British Museum) and on 



St. Croix, where it is quite common (Newton, Ebis, ser. 1, vol. 1, p. 366, 1859). It is Virgin 



known from the Lesser Antilles, and has been recorded from Barbuda (Clark, 1905), Islands 



Guadeloupe and Martinique (Lawrence, 1879) and even from Barbados (R. H. Schom- Lesser 



burgk, 1848). There are no records of its occurrence farther south, nor has it ever Antilles 



been found on the mainland of South America. 



GENERAL HABITS 



Haunts. The Black-billed Tree Duck is an inhabitant of forested swamps or even 

 of mangrove regions. It is seldom seen swimming on open water, but will wade about 

 the swamps, in the evening sometimes traveling long distances to its feeding grounds. 



Waeiness. Judging by the evident success with which the natives of the West 

 Indies kill or capture these birds, they cannot be considered as very intelligent or 

 shy. It is said that when a flock is shot into, and some of the number killed or 

 wounded, the remainder will return and settle by the injured birds, provided the 

 hunter keeps quiet (Gundlach, 1875). One collector, however, considered the species 

 shy on Watling's Island (Todd and Worthington, 1911). 



Daily Movements. All writers describe the crepuscular flights of this duck 

 to and from its resting places in the swamps to its feeding grounds. Bangs and 



