4 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII . 



the Azores, Madeira, and Canaries on the west to Nubia and Abyssinia 

 (Riippel) on the e?st ; in Asia during the winter found from Arabia, 

 through Persia and North India to China and Japan ; in America 

 extending southwards to Mexico, the West Indies ; and Central America 

 as far as Panama." 



Narrowing ourselves to our own Indian limits, we find that A. boscas 

 is very conmion only in the extreme north and north-west ; it is a con- 

 stant but less nmnerous visitor to the whole of the North-West Provinces, 

 Punjab and Oudh ; and south of this is decidedly rare. It has been 

 shot occasionally in Rajputana ; and also in the Central Provinces and in 

 Bombay. It is met with at odd times and places throughout Bengal 

 and Assam ; and I have myself shot a pair in Jessore which were in com- 

 pany with a few Gadwall. They were extremely wild, as were all the 

 ducks, and it was only with considerable difficulty they were approached 

 and shot. It is not very rare in Cachar, and is occasionally to be seen in 

 Sylhet. I shot one out of a small flock in Gowhatty in DeGember,1886, and 

 have had notices of them from Dibrughur, Sadya, Tezpur, and Naogaon. 

 From Manipur the only record I have is that of Surgeon-Captain Woods, 

 who writes : " The mallard is extremely rare in Manipur ; in fact, during 

 the last seven years I have only seen a pair, and that was this year about 

 the lOth of January. These two birds were along with a large flock 

 of teal in a small jheel lying about eight miles due north of Imphal. I 

 tried hard to secure them, but they were very wild and flew away at 

 the first shot. I returned to the jheel next day, but could find no signs 

 of them. I also saw a pair on a small jheel in the Namba forest " 

 (Assam). Lately two notices of its appearance in Burma have been made 

 in the " Asian." The notices, though initialled and not signed in full, 

 appear to be authentic. One mallard is recorded as being part of a huge 

 baf of duck and teal obtained near Mandalay. 



In Kashmir they are extremely common, as may be seen from the 

 following well- written cutting from the "Asian" of the 8th of February 

 by the pen of " A. E. W." :— " On January, the 18th, I was shooting at 

 a marsh near the big reserve, having in front of me about five or six 

 acres of open water and a smaller amount about five hundred yards 

 behind. The reserve was also being shot by four guns, so that the ducks 

 were being continually driven towards me. I knew if I could once get 

 ray punts through the ice I should be in for a good thing. For :in hour- 



