52 INDIAN DUCKS 



a duller hue. There is only one sexed skin in the British Museum (which 

 possesses only six adult skins altogether), and this a temale. The only 

 colours given, however, in the catalogue are those quoted as from Shilling- 

 ford, Imt I do not know the authority from which these are taken, and 

 Rhillingford himself does not seem to have sexed his specimens. 



Gates says that of the birds lie has examined he has found the females 

 to 1)0 about equal to the males in size. He gives the wing as 11 inches. 

 The only other record of female measurements is in the Appendix to ' Game- 

 Birds,' where a female is said to he 23 inches long with a wing of lO'S, 

 and an expanse of 37 inches ; strange to say, also, she weighed more than 

 three out of the four males that are mentioned in the same place. 



Young. — " Head and neck pale rose-whitish colour, witli the top of 

 the head, nape, and hind-neck brown ; the whole plumage lighter brown ; 

 the undorparts pale dull brown, with the edges of the feathers whitish." 

 {Sfi] radon. ) 



I do not understand the young bird depicted in the plate in ' Game- 

 Birds,' and have never heard of any like it in plumage, the "rose-whitish " 

 colour being always a distinct feature. 



Distribution. — The headquarters of this duck are, as Hume says, 

 Bengal, north of the Ganges and west of the Brahmapootra rivers ; 

 above all, it is most common in jNIaldah, Purneah, Purulia, and 

 adjoining districts, the two first-named places being especially 

 favoured. It has also been obtained in Arrah, Mozufferpore, Chota- 

 Nagpur, and Eanchi, where it is only a rare bird, and Singhboom, 

 where it is rather more common. It is also found sparingly through 

 Orrissa, and as far south as Madras, and all through Eastern Bengal 

 and Assam up to Manipur, where Hume obtained it, and later 

 Colonel Tytler and Mr. Higgins. Hume says in Vol. xi of ' Stray 

 Feathers ' about Blwdonessa : — 



" This species is very scarce in Manipur. 1 only saw it at the 

 Lagtak Lake, and there I only saw one party that kept up in a 

 weedy lagoon at the north-east corner of the lake, where it was 

 impossible to get them. I did get a single bird, jjut that was only 

 by lying upon several occasions in a thick reed-bed and getting them 

 driven. Three times they went in the wrong direction, but having 

 at last made out their line, I laid u]) in the right place the foiu'lh 

 time and knocked down a brace, of which, however, I only recovered 

 one ; I had no dog. This species occurs in Sylhet, and has been 

 procured in various parts of the Assam Valley right up to Sadiya, 

 but alike in Assam and 8> Ihet (there seems to have been no record 

 of its occurrence in Cachar) it appears to be excessively rare, little 

 more than an occasional straggler.'' 



