oRNITIWLOa Y. 399 



a. Young aulolfeplioux. 



Family Anseridse. 

 Tlir binls of this family all lay unspotted eggs of some sliatle of green or pale brown. 



I'LEOTROPTERIXiE. 



The spurred goesc arc so called from being usually provided with one or more 

 spurs on the slioulder, and a bill with a boss or protuberance at its base. The legs 

 are usually long, but the Muscovy duck is an aberrant form with unusually short legs. 



Saekidioenis melanotis, Pennant. Arakan. Pegu. 



Tor-vron-bai. 



NETT.VPODIN.E. 



Kettapus C0E05IANDELIANUS, Giuel. Arakau. Pegu. Tenasserim. 



The ' cotton teal ' is remarkable for its habit of breeding in trees, often at some 

 distance from water, and there seems no doubt that the newly-hatched young are 

 conveyed by the parent birds in their mouth to the nearest water. Tickell mentions 

 tliis bird as making its nest on a palm tree. The ' golden eye ' {Fuligula cristuta) 

 is another teal which also breeds in trees, strange as such a habit seems in such a bu'd. 



TAD0RXIN.T5. 



The shieldrakcs and whistling teal arc, according to Jcrdon, intermediate between 

 the geese and ducks. They have the wing spot of the latter, but the voice and the 

 plumage alike in both sexes, as the former. 



Dendeocygxa atjsueee, Sykos. Arakan. Pegu. Tenasserim. Nicobars. 



This species breeds on the ground, but occasionally in trees like the last, according 

 to Jerdon. 



D. FULVA, Gmel. Pigu. 



D. major, Jerdon. 

 Casaeka kutila, Pallas. Arakan. Pegu. Tenasserim. 



The ruddy shieldrake or Braminy duck. 



This is a winter visitant, which breeds in Thibet. 



C. LECCOPTEEA, Blyth. Eare in Tenasserim, according to Hume. 



Inhabits the valleys of the great rivers, from the Megna, at least to the 

 Tenasserim. The Anas scutulata, S. Midler, seems to be a domesticated, if not 

 hybrid, variety of this species, and the examples of it in the British and Leyden 

 Museums have much intermixture of white in the plumage. 



Family Anatidae. 



The Ducks differ from the Geese by having a broader and more depressed bill, 

 and with the lamina; more developed. The sexes too differ greatly in colour, the 

 male being conspicuously handsomer. There are two subfamilies, the Ducks and 

 the Pochards. 



ANATINiE. 

 Anas rjECiLOBHTNCHA, Pennant. Arakan. Bhamo. Tenasserim. 



Hume did not procure this bird, and on that ground doubts its occurrence. As 

 Blyth records it from Tenasserim, he was probably more fortuiuite. A positive record 

 of a man like Blyth is not to be set aside simply because another man has not 

 personally been able to verify it. 



A. CAKYOPHTLLACEA, Lath. Arakan. Bhamo. 



A. STUEPERA, L. Arakan. 



The Gadwall is one of the best ducks for the table. 



