VOL. VI.] NOTES. 347 



Throat blackish down the middle as in Wigeon. 

 l^pper-breast pearly-pink hke Wigeon, but with many black 



spots not quite so large or extensive as in Teal, but 



much more so than in Wigeon. 

 Flanks barred more coarsely than in Wigeon and resembling 



Teal. 

 Under tail-coverts blackish like Wigeon. 



J. Beddall Smith. 



THE "BIMACULATED DUCK." 



Howard Saunders says {Manual, 2nd ed., p. 432) that the 

 Bimaculated Duck is a hybrid between Wigeon and Teal. 

 This is evidently taken from the same author's Yarrell (4th 

 ed., Vol. IV., p. 389) where it is said that Mr. Hancock had 

 examined the British specimen of the so-called Bimaculated 

 Duck and found ic to be a hybrid between these two species. 

 Turning to Hancock {N. H. Trans. NortMimberland and 

 Durham, Vol. VI., p. 153) we find that he states that he has 

 examined the specimen figured by Yarrell and Bewick and 

 that there can be no doubt that it is a hybrid between Teal 

 and Wigeon. The bird figured in the first edition of Yarrell 

 (Vol. III., p. 165) was taken with a female in a decoy at 

 Ma'don, Essex, in 1821, and was presented to the Zoological 

 Siji'iety and afterwards reached the British Museum. There 

 can be no doubt that this bird is a Mallard x Teal hybrid, 

 as is indeed evident by the figure in YarreU and the des- 

 cription taken from Selby {Illustrations of British Ornithology, 

 Vol. II., p. 321, 1833). Meyer gives a coloured figure of the 

 bu'd and most recent authors have considered it to be a 

 Mallard x Teal hybrid, including Salvadori m Cat. Birds 

 B. M., Vol. XXVII. It is indeed difficult to understand how 

 Hancock and, following him, Howard Saunders could have 

 supposed it to be a Wigeor x Teal hybrid. 



In my edition of Bewick (1805 large paper) the bird is not 

 figured but a description of it is given quoted from Latham. 

 This description is taken almost word for word from Pennant 

 {Brit. Zool, 1776, Vol. II., p. 510, pi. c. No. 287) who appears 

 to have been the first to have described a bird under this 

 name. The specimen he describes was taken in a decoy 

 in 1771 and is apparently not in existence. His description 

 differs somewhat from that given in YarreU, and although 

 it is quite clear that Pennant's bird was a hybrid, and that 

 a Mallard was one parent, it is difficult to decide whether 

 the other parent was a Teal or a Wigeon. He mentions a 

 large oblong ferruginous spot behmd each ear, which if dra^\'n 

 m the correct position in the figure would be just where there 



