Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS

THE SWANS, GEESE, DUCKS, AND MERGANSERS

The Fulvous Tree-Duck

is a handsome bird, about twenty inches long, with the back and scapulars black, the under parts cinnamon or fulvous, the flanks marked with paler stripes; the head and neck are like the lower parts, and the upper tail-coverts are white. The late Colonel Grayson, writing of this bird as he observed it in western Mexico, says that although inhabiting the coast region it is never found in the sea, being strictly a fresh-water Duck.

It arrives at the close of the rainy season in great numbers, frequenting fresh-water ponds and lakes, where it feeds upon grain and seeds, often visiting the corn-fields at night for grain. He did not procure the nest himself, although he was informed by the natives that they nested on the ground among grasses, and not in trees. This view is strengthened by the observations of Hudson, who met with it very abundantly in eastern Argentina, where it makes its appearance in the spring,

in very large numbers, to breed in the marshes and on the pampas. Of the nests he says: “So extremely social are these Ducks that when breeding they keep together in large flocks. The nest is made of stems and leaves, on the water among the weeds and aquatic plants; and sometimes large numbers of nests are found close together, as in a gullery. The eggs are pure white, and each bird lays,

I believe, ten or twelve, but I am not sure about the exact number; and I have so frequently found from twenty to thirty eggs in a nest that I am pretty sure that it is a common thing for two or three females to occupy one nest.”In India, Hunt mentions the finding of but a single nest, and this was placed in a large hollow tree overhanging the water. It contained seven eggs.

previous bird species next bird species