120 METOPIANA PEPOSACA 



pies arrived in England, which sold for £25 the pair, but that later the price fell 

 to £4 10s. or £6. The present price is £4 10s. the pair. No doubt this was due to 

 the creation of a hand-reared stock. In Mr. Wormald's (MS.) experience the earliest 

 date of laying in England was April 19. 



In American collections it has never been a common bird. Since the War only a 

 few have been imported. The pre-War price was about $20 to $30 the pair, although 

 the New York Gardens have obtained them for as little as $9.00 each. In America, 

 so far as I know, only Mr. William Rockefeller has succeeded in breeding them, 

 probably because the best of the hand-reared stock of water-fowl rarely reaches this 

 side of the water. 



The thirty-nine specimens in the London Gardens lived about four years on an 

 average, the maximum being thirteen years and four months (P. C. Mitchell, 1911). 

 Heinroth (1911) notes that the free-flying specimens in the Berlin Gardens disap- 

 peared very quickly, and that even birds which have been pinioned for years show a 

 very restless temperament. Young birds on experimental flights usually ended up in 

 the most incredible places. Some flew through glass roofs which they apparently 

 took for water. 



It is a great pity that the more attractive water-fowl of southern South America 

 are so seldom landed on our shores. One reason is, of course, the poor steamer con- 

 nections between Buenos Aires and New York. Then, too, stocks of geese and ducks 

 which do reach this country seldom fall into careful hands and consequently we do 

 not produce the fine hand-reared strains which are, or rather were, so common in 

 Europe. 



Hybrids. There are no records of wild hybrids, but in captivity this duck has 

 been successfully crossed with the Red -crested Pochard (Netta rufina), the Com- 

 mon Pintail (Anas acuta) and the Carolina Duck (Lampronessa sponsa). The hybrids 

 between Rosy -bill and the Red-crested Pochard proved fertile and were crossed with 

 the Carolina Duck (Poll, 1911; J. Delacour, in litt.). According to Heinroth (1919) 

 the male hybrids between Metopiana peposaca and Netta rufina regularly assume a 

 summer plumage resembling that of the latter species. 



Mr. Wormald has obtained hybrids from a mating, male Rosy-bill by female Mal- 

 lard. I am told that Mr. Hubert Astley crossed the Rosy-bill with a common 

 Tufted Duck. 



