MANDARIN DUCK 49 



better than a coiumon house-pigeon, and as it is so very small, 

 only weighing about ten ounces, and is very tame in many 

 places, it is commonly thought hardly worth shooting, besides 

 which it is such a nice little bird that shooting it is rather like 

 firing at a robin or a squirrel ; it does not seem right to make 

 game of it. The breeding season does not begin before the end 

 of June, and lasts till August ; the birds moult after this, and 

 the drake has his undress plumage in the winter, unlike most 

 other ducks. Holes in buildings as well as holes in trees may be 

 utilized for nesting, and there is reason to believe that the 

 parents, at any rate the female, carry down the little brown and 

 white ducklings like the whistler. The eggs are like miniature 

 nukta's eggs, remarkable for their smoothness and yellowish- 

 white colour; ten is the usual number of the sitting. 



The note of the male is one of the noteworthy peculiarities of 

 this pretty little creature ; he often calls on the wing, his 

 peculiar cackle being imitated by several native names, such as 

 Lerriget-perriget or Merom-derehet among the Kols, and the 

 Burmese Kalagat. The Uriya name is Dandana, and Gurgurra 

 is used in Hindustani as well as Glrri, Girria, or Gurja. 



East of India this bird ranges to Celebes and China and 

 reappears as a slightly larger but otherwise indistinguishable 

 race, as far off as Australia. 



Mandarin Duck. 



Mx galericulata. 



Except for one specimen shot by Mr. A. Stevens on the 

 Dibru Eiver in Assam, and recorded by Mr. E. C. S. Baker in 

 his book on Indian Ducks, no Indian-killed example of this 

 beautiful East Asiatic duck is on record, though there is evi- 

 dence that others have been seen, and even in one case shot. 

 These were all females like the one preserved, or males either 

 in young or undress plumage, and therefore in plumage closely 

 resembling that of the female ; and in this species the resem- 

 blance is extraordinarily close in such specimens. 



Thus the mandarin in India has so far appeared as a small 

 brown duck, rather less in size than a wigeon, with a long tail 

 4 



