222 NYROCA ERYTHROPHTHALMA 



Note: Confusion in the distribution of this duck has arisen chiefly because immature or faded speci- 

 mens, which are much commoner in collections than adult males, have been compared with old birds 

 in fresh plumage. Thus it has been maintained (F. M. Chapman, 1917) that adult South American 

 examples are always darker than the darkest of African specimens. I cannot agree to this for I have 

 examined and either carefully compared or made notes upon all specimens in the American Museum 

 of Natural History at New York, the U.S. National Museum in Washington, the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Sciences, the British Museum, and the collection at Tring. In other words, although I 

 was at first inclined to the opinion that South American males were slightly different in color about 

 the sides of the head (darker and richer), I have recently found specimens in England which were as 

 nearly as I could see indistinguishable. But in comparing specimens from the two continents it is very 

 necessary to pick only the blackest and freshest-plumaged birds. The others present all tones from 

 faded brown to deep, rich, dark chestnut. In Uganda in April, 1924, 1 shot a number of these ducks 

 and saw many more and I feel quite certain that all-black specimens are not as rare in Africa as one 

 would think from specimens in collections. 



As to the Wied types from Lagoa do Braco, southern Brazil, which are now in the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History at New York, they are merely old faded specimens which have nothing 

 characteristic in their measurements and are too old to retain much of their original coloration. One, 

 a male, was probably not in adult plumage when taken, and has shed his primaries. The other, a 

 female, is in better plumage, but perhaps even more faded than the male. This specimen may not 

 have been in full adult plumage either, for the whitish areas at the base of the bill and on the chin and 

 throat are not as clearly defined as they should be. Taking everything into consideration I have 

 merely followed Salvadori's (1895) suggestion when he said, "It seems extremely likely that the 

 Brazilian N. erythrophtkalma (Wied), the Peruvian A T . nationi, and the African N. brunnea are one 

 and the same species," etc. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Like the Fulvous and the White-faced Tree Ducks, the Southern Pochard has a very peculiar distri- 

 bution, for it is found chiefly in eastern Africa and in western South America. There seems no longer 

 to be any doubt that specimens from these widely separated areas belong to the same species. Like 

 many tropical ducks, it may be regarded as essentially non-migratory, though in Africa it may with- 

 draw from the extremities of its range in the cold season, and it moves about according to the wetness 

 or dryness of the country. 



In eastern Africa specimens have been taken as far north as Lake Haddo, Shoa, Abyssinia, in May 

 Africa (Salvadori, 1884). To the southward it is a common bird on some of the lakes of British 



Abyssinia East Africa (B. Horsbrugh, 1912; V. G. L. van Someren, 1916), particularly Lakes 

 Naivasha and Nakuru (Bannerman, 1910; V. G. L. van Someren, 1922; W. Stone, 1906). Hinde 

 British (1898) found it at Machakos in April and October, and Salvadori (1914) has reported 



East it from Victoria Nyanza. It is a common bird in western Uganda, especially in the 



Ainca Ankole district and about the Ruwenzori Range (Ogilvie-Grant, 1905a; F. J. Jackson, 



1906; V. G. L. van Someren, 1916). I saw a great many on the lakes of the Kigezi district, extreme 

 Uganda southwestern Uganda, in the spring of 1924. The farthest northern record seems to 



Sudan De that of a specimen sent in alive from Um Ruaba, Kordofan, Sudan, to the Zoo- 



logical Gardens in Cairo (Flower, 1921). 



It appears to be a less well-known bird in what was formerly German East Africa. It is true that 

 the Swedish Expedition found it very abundant on the Natron Lakes and met with it during the whole 

 year in the Kilimandjaro-Meru region (Sjostedt, 1910), but Schillings (1905) did not find it at all 

 Tanganyika common on the Merker Lakes, and the only two other records for this region are for 

 Territory Tanganyika (Dubois, 1886a) and Kibaya-Massai (Neumann, 1898). 



The British Museum possesses specimens taken at Lake Bangweola, northern Rhodesia. Neave 



