152 INDIAN DUCKS 



and South China, and in America to Mexico and Panama. Sub- 

 species are found in Greenland aild Iceland. 



Narrowing ourselves to our Indian limits, we find that A . platy- 

 rhyncha is very common only in the extreme North and North-west ; 

 it is a constant but less numerous visitor to the whole of the 

 North-west Provinces, Punjab, and Oudh ; and south of this is 

 decidedly rare, though in 1910-11 Mosse reports its having occurred 

 in some numbers in Western Kathiawar. It has been shot occasion- 

 ally in Rajputana, and also in the Central Provinces and in Bombay.' 

 It is met with at odd times and places throughout Bengal and Assam, 

 and I myself have shot a pair in Jessore which were in company 

 with a few Gadwall. They vv-ere extremely wild, as were all the 

 ducks, and it was only with considerable difficulty that they were 

 approached and shot. It is not rare in Cachar, and is occasionally to 

 be seen in Sylhet. I shot one out of a small flock in Gowhatty in 

 December, 1880, and many were shot in the same district by Mr. C. 

 Holder and others ; and 1 have had notices of it from Dibrugarh 

 (frecjuently), Sadya, Tezpur, and Naogaon. From Manipur Surgeon- 

 Captain Woods writes : — 



"The Mallard is extremely rare in Manipur; ni fact, during the 

 last seven years I have only seen a pair, and that was this year 

 about the 10th .January. These two birds were along with a large 

 flock of teal in a small jheel lying about 8 miles due north of 

 Imphal. I tried to secure then], but they were very wild, and flew 

 away at the first shot. I returned to the jheel the next day, but 

 could find no signs of them. I also saw a pair on a small jheel in 

 the Namha Forest (.\ssam)." 



Higgins, however, reports the shooting of three more Mallard in 

 the cold weather of iyi'2-13. Lately two records of its appearance 

 in Burma have been made in the ' Asian.' The notices, though 

 initialled and not signed in full, appear to be authentic. One Mallard 

 is reported as being part of a huge bag of duck and teal obtained 

 near Mandalay. Harington records it as having been shot in the 

 Bhamo district. 



Nidification. — Within Indian limits, the Mallard breeds in vast 



' Colonel A. S. Capper informs me that on Cliristmas l>ay. 1920. a Mallard was 

 shot near Guna by Mr. AVausbrough-.Joues. This appears to be its second recorded 

 occui-rence in the Central India agency. 



