Mr. F. B. Simson on the Pink-headed Duck. 271 



XXXI. — Notes on the Pink-headed Duck (Anas 

 caryophyllacea) . By Frank B. Simson. 



The Pink-headed Duck is a bird little known to the Bengal 

 sportsman and ornithologist^ and considered rare. It is^ 

 however^ far from uncommon in a restricted area of Bengal, 

 and may be said to make its home in the southern part of 

 the district of Purneah_, and in the country which borders 

 the left or northern bank of the Ganges, between the Coosy 

 River, which separates Purneah from Bhangulpore, and in 

 the Maldah district. It is found more sparingly in Bhan- 

 gulpore and Tirhoot, and occasionally in likely places in the 

 North-western Provinces and in Upper India. Jerdon re- 

 cords it from Madras, though he never saw it in the flesh 

 there. Specimens have been obtained in the Calcutta 

 bazaar, which has yielded more ornithological rarities than 

 any single place in India. Col. Irby tells me he met Avith 

 it, and this can be relied on. But many people in Bengal 

 have told me that they had shot it in various places ; never- 

 theless, whenever I could test these statements I never found 

 that any such Duck had been killed lower in Eastern Bengal 

 than Maldah. The birds called Pink-headed always turned 

 out to be Bed-crested Pochards. 



The country mentioned on the north of the Ganges which 

 I have referred to as the home of this Duck is alluvial, and 

 consists of vast, extensive, and much-neglected plains, 

 studded at considerable intervals Avith small poor villages, 

 intersected Avith very deep clear streams, all miming to the 

 Ganges and abounding in crocodiles. These plains are diffi- 

 cult to cross on foot in the dry season, except by paths that 

 cannot be called roads ; elephants are generally used by all 

 but the poor to travel with across these Avastes, AA^iich are 

 often inundated when the Ganges rises high. To such an 

 extent do these inundations occasionally prevail that the 

 human inhabitants are compelled to take to boats, while 

 the deer and game generally resort to the few highest spots, 

 Avhere they are often slaughtered. The tigers have even 

 been known. to live for a time in trees, where, apparently. 



