Bulletin - United States National Museum - si-pddr - Smithsonian ...

70 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
Rio Negro. On January 31, 1921, when I visited the Lagima Cas-
tillos, near San Vicente, Rocha, the great birds were common but
were too wary to permit approach, so that in the end no specimens
were obtained. On the wing the birds form a beautiful picture
from the contrast in color between the black neck and the snow white
body. As they pass they may utter low honking calls suggesting
those of geese.
CAIRINA MOSCHATA (Linnaeus)
Anas moschata Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1758, p. 124. ("Brasilia.")"
The Muscovy duck was fairly common in the wilder sections of the
Chaco where lagoons offered permanent water during the dry season
of winter. The first noted were seen on August 13, 1920, near the
Riacho Pilaga, a few leagues south of the Rio Pilcomayo in the
Territory of Formosa, Argentina. As two rose from a marshy
lagoon and passed me, beating heavily against a strong wind, I shot
and wounded one. The birds made a short circle and alighted on a
large horizontal limb of a quebracho tree growing in the open, where
they rested for some time. On this occasion I had the misfortune
to lose the crippled bird in a dense tract of monte. A single one of
these ducks was observed at frequent intervals in open water on a
large lagoon, and when alarmed swam out into growths of cat-tails
and hid. It was shot on August 17 and proved to be an immature
male. Another dead bird was examined in possession of some
Indians at this same point.
At Kilometer 80, west of Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay, from September
7 to 17 these great ducks were common in flocks of three to
a dozen about lagoons densely grown with sedges and rushes, where
pools of open water w^ere small and infrequent. Conditions were
somewhat similar to those frequented many times by mallards,
though in this case the locality may have been chosen through necessity,
as it was near the end of the dry season and all lagoons were
greatly reduced in area. When alarmed the Muscovies rose readily
in spite of their weight and flew off low over the tops of the dense
groves of palms that surrounded the marshes. Often instead of
continuing to other lagoons, after a flight of a few yards the birds
alighted on the larger limbs of some dead deciduous tree standing
among the palms, where they rested in company. It was a source of
continual surprise to me to flush them from such locations. I found
that their claws were curved and sharp pointed as an aid in a firm
grasp on the limbs.
The flight of the Muscovy duck is heavy and rather slow. At each
stroke of the wings the white shoulders of adult birds flash promi-
" Linnaeus gives the type locality of tbe present species as " India." Berlepsch
and Hartert (Nov. Zool., vol. 9, April, 1902, p. 131) have corrected this to "Brasilia"
as the species in a wild state is known only from the New World.