4 ANAS ANGUSTIROSTRIS 



Iris brown. Bill bluish gray, black on the culmen and tip. Legs and feet horny brown, with webs 

 black (Salvadori, 1895). 

 Wing 205 mm.; bill 45; tarsus 37 (Museum of Comparative Zoology specimens). 



Adult Female : Similar to the male but slightly smaller. 



Young in Down: Not seen. 



DISTRIBUTION 



The Marbled Duck has a unique range among the ducks. It is confined to the warmer regions 

 of southern Europe, northern Africa, and southwestern Asia, and is essentially resident, though in 

 Europe at least it is known primarily as an irregular summer visitor. What appear to have been 

 migratory movements of considerable numbers have been observed in the Suez Canal region. 



In the west it is found as far south as the Cape Verde Islands, where it breeds on Boavista 

 (Barboza de Bocage, 1898; B. Alexander, 1898; Meinertzhagen, in litt.). It is not a well-known bird in 

 the Canaries, but has been reported as breeding in the group (Bolle, 1857; Cabrera y Diaz, 1893-94; 

 Bannerman, 1919). In the Madeiras a specimen was shot on July 29, 1894, near Funchal (Hartwig, 

 Northern 1894). It is perhaps most common as a breeding bird in northern Africa. In Morocco 

 Africa it is a well-known species and a common breeder (Irby, 1875; Vaucher, 1915), and in 



Algeria also a considerable number nest, especially on Lake Fetzara, where countless numbers breed 

 (Zedlitz, 1914). In Tunis it seems to be somewhat rarer, but is nevertheless known as a breeding bird 

 (Talamon, 1904; J. I. S. Whitaker, 1905; Millet-Horsin, 1912). Von Heuglin (1873) took a specimen 

 in the Ben-Ghazi district of Tripoli. It is a not uncommon species in Egypt, and is known to have 

 bred in Lower Egypt on the Wadi Natrun and as far as Fayum (Cecil, 1904; Nicoll, 1919; Lord 

 William Percy, in litt.). 



As stated above, the Marbled Duck is only an irregular migrant and summer resident in southern 

 and central Europe. In Portugal it is a very rare bird (A. C. Smith, 1868). It has been recorded from 

 Portugal Guadiana, Ribatejo and Silves (Oliveira, ,/Me de Seabra, 1910); and Tait (1887) thinks 

 Spam it ma y possibly breed in the northern parts. It is a far more common bird in Spain, 



that is, in the southern parts, but even there its numbers vary greatly in different years. Usually they 

 appear in Andalucia and Valencia in spring, and in some seasons great numbers nest, especially along 

 the lower Guadalquivir. There is no evidence of any wintering in Spain, but the species has been 

 taken as far north as Gerona (Irby, 1875; H. Saunders, 1871 ; Reyes y Prosper, 1886; Arevalo y Baca, 

 1887; H. Noble, 1902; A. Chapman and Buck, 1910). 



Its occurrence in France is wholly accidental. A specimen was taken in Bresse in 1872, and two 



were captured in Saone-et-Loire in 1893 (fide Paris, 1907). There seems to have been a flight near 



St. Gilles (departement Gard) in the springs of 1886, 1897 and 1898, as various speci- 



G^rmanv mens Were killed there ^ Anfrie ' 1913; Hu 8 ues > 1913 )- L'Hermitte (1916) says the 

 Italy species is of accidental occurrence in Camargue. In Switzerland a specimen is said to 



have been shot near Geneva during the last decade of the last century (Fatio, 1904). 

 There is, so far as I know, only one record for Germany, and that is of a pair shot near Wasserburg, 

 Bavaria, late in June, 1892 (von Besserer, Ornith. Jahrb., 1894, p. 215). It is possible that these birds 

 may have bred in the north, and that the Geneva specimen was taken in that year, for on June 16, 

 1892, a flock of about fifty appeared near Lucca, Italy. They re-appeared in August, about seventy 

 in number, and were shot at various places in northern and central Italy during the remainder of 1892 

 and the greater part of 1893 (Picchi, 1904; Arrigoni degli Oddi, 1904). Another specimen was taken 

 late in August, 1897, near Molinella (Cavazza, 1912) and in May, 1903, a specimen was taken near 

 Foggia (Angelini,^rfe Arrigoni degli Oddi, 1904). Three specimens are said to have been taken near 

 Naples in 1858 and a flight is said to have occurred in Sicily in 1881 (Picchi, 1904). The only speci- 



DSI 



