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



centric pule bunds ; tail feathers hrown ; qnills brown ; speculum black, 

 slightly glossed with green ; wing coverts greyish-brown, with pale 

 edges, especially the greater coverts ; upper breast and sides dull rufous 

 with concentric brown bars ; abdomen whitish, with a few bars or spots; 

 under tail coverts rufescent, with brown marks " (Blanford). 

 *' Bill, feet, and irides as in the male " (Salvadori). 

 " Wings 9-85" to 10-06" ; tails 3-23" to 3'57" ; bill at front 1-75" to 

 VU"; tarsi 1'40" to 1-62"" (Schrenk). 

 " Length 16-0" ; wing 9'0" ; tail 3-4" ; tarsus 1-2"" (Dresser). 

 The strict habitat of this little duck is Eastern Asia, whence it ranges 

 occasionally west, sometimes entering Eastern Europe. It breeds 

 throughout Eastern Siberia, and lately I have received notes of its breed- 

 ing from Manchuria. In the winter it descends south, and is common 

 in China and Japan, and of very rare occurrence within our limits. 

 8eebohm says ( " Birds of the Japanese Empire " ) : " The Falcated 

 Teal is a winter visitor to all the Japanese islands. The Peny Expedi- 

 tion found it to ])e one of the most abundant of the water-birds of Japan, 

 and noticed it at various j)oints during the voyage." 



In India few specimens have been obtained since Hume's time, more 

 probabl}' owuig to no notice l)eing taken of them than for any other 

 reason, although their occurrence is of course very rare. Hume notes 

 five specimens which came into his possession : of these, two were caught 

 liy fowlers near Lucknow, and given to him by Dr. Bonavia ; Major 

 C. H. T. Marshall shot a male at Kumal, 70 miles north of Delhi, in 

 Feliruary ; another was shot in the same month, aliout 30 miles from Delhi, 

 by Mr. "VY. M. Chill ; and the fifth was obtained by Hume himself in the 

 Calcutta bazaar, and this he says was caught in the immediate vicinity. 



Sliortly aftiu- this General McLeod recorded that he had shot a female 

 at Feroza, Bhawalpur, in December, IfJ 79; and G. Reid in the same 

 volume of " Stray Feathers" as that in which this record is made states: 

 "Two years ago I myself saw tsvo or three in the possession of a native 

 fowler, who would not part with them except at a fancy price, saying he 

 meant to take them with a lot of others he had to the ex-King of Oudh, 

 wlio woukl pay him handsomely." He does not say whether the " lot 

 of others" were of the same species, presumably not. 



Another young male, without the sickle-shaped inner secondaries, was 

 obtained by a friend in the ( Jalcutta Ijazaar; a specimen has been shot iu 



