THE COMB DUCK. 
275 
the neck with the feathers spare and pointed; back and scapulars rich 
brown^ each feather very broadly edged with chestnut ; rump and upper 
tail-coverts black; the central portion of the wing-coverts more or less 
maroon ; remainder of the coverts^ the quills and tail black ; the whole 
lower plumage chestnut ; the breast paler ; under tail-coverts yellowish 
white ; sides of the body and under wing-coverts with broad yellowish- 
white streaks. 
The bill and other parts are coloured very similarly to the same parts of 
Z). javanica . 
Length 20 inches, tail 3, wing 9, tarsus 2*5, bill from gape 2*4. The 
female is of much the same size. 
The Larger Whistling Teal is comparatively a rare bird in Burmah, 
except in the northern portions of Pegu, where I found it very abundant 
in the Engmah swamp_, twenty-five miles south of Prome. Capt. Wardlaw 
Ramsay procured it at Tonghoo ; and I observed it several times in the 
paddy-fields near Kyeikpadein in Southern Pegu during the rains. I can 
find no record of its occurrence in Tenasserim or Arrakan. 
It is met with over a consider^^ble portion of India and Ceylon, and it 
will probably be found in the Indo-Burmese countries. Elsewhere it has 
a curious distribution ; for it is found in Madagascar and over the greater 
part of South America. 
This species, so far as I had an opportunity of observing it, resembles 
the preceding very closely in habits. 
D. arcuata, Cuv., is an allied species, which inhabits Java, the Philip- 
pines and Australia. 
Genus SARCIDIOENIS, Eyton. 
638. SARCIDIORNIS MELANONOTA. 
THE COMB DUCK. 
Anser melanonotus, Penn. in Forst. Ind. Zool. p. 21, pi. 11 ; Neioton, S, F. viii. 
p. 415. Sarcidiornis melanonotus, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 785 ; Hume, Nests 
and Eggs, p. 636 ; id. S. F. ill. p. 192 ; Anders. Ibis, 1874, p. 220 ; Bl. B. Burin. 
p. 165 ; Wardlaw Ramsatj, Ibis, 1877, p. 472 ; Hume Sj- Dav. S. F. vi. p. 486 ; 
Hume, S. F. vii. p. 607, viii. p. 114 ; Hume Sf Marsh. Game Birds, iii. p. 91, 
pi. ; Parker, 8. F. ix. p. 486 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 1063 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 245. 
Description. — Male. Head and neck white, spotted with metallic black, 
the spots more frequent on the crown and hind neck, and causing those 
parts to be almost entirely black ; base of the neck and the whole lower 
plumage white ; upper back^ the whole of the wings^ rump and upper tail- 
T 2 
