NYROCA NYROCA BAERI 275 



Mr. Finn does not think that Baer's Pochartl has been a common 

 form merely overlooked. Certainly, as he says to me in epistold, 

 Baer's Pochard when adult cannot well be mistaken for the Common 

 White-eye. Blyth's bird was a young female, and therefore, of 

 course, very much like a Common White-eye. It may be, therefore, 

 that there was just a temporary, unaccountable rush of this form to 

 India, and that it will again cease to appear. 



At the same time it seems probable from Mr. Finn's observations 

 in Calcutta that the Eastern White-eye will prove a regular and not 

 uncommon visitor to the North-eastern parts of India, and, almost 

 equally surely, to Northern Burma. My own collectors on two 

 occasions obtained a young male in Cachar ; they seemed to know the 

 bird, and called it the " boro lalbigar," or " Larger White-eye." 

 When questioned they said it was a rare but regular visitor to Cachar, 

 and a more common one in Sylhet, whence they offered to procure 

 me specimens. 



Mr. Gates assumes that the present bird is the common form of 

 White-eye procured in Cachar, Sylhet, Manipur and Burma. This, 

 however, is distinctly not correct as regards the first-mentioned three 

 localities, in which the Eastern or Baer's White-eye is infinitely more 

 rare than the common white-eye. I have myself shot over the 

 districts of Lakhimpur, Tezpur (rarely), Gowhatty, Cachar, and 

 Sylhet, and in all of these it is the Common White-eye which is the 

 typical local form, though from all these districts, except Gowhatty, 

 I have obtained one or more specimens of Baer's bird. 



Manipur has been shot over by many keen sportsmen who were 

 also good observers, and in one or two cases good field-ornithologists 

 as well, and I cannot believe that none of these would have noticed 

 Baer's Pochard if it had been in any way common. All specimens 

 sent me from Manipur have been of the western form, and I have 

 no doubt that it is the typical form of that State. It, however, 

 does occur there from time to time, and Higgins has recorded five 

 birds being shot near Imphal, whilst Colonel Campbell also obtained 

 one there in March, 1913. 



As regards Burma, I cannot dogmatize, but I should note that 

 when I tried my utmost for three years to get specimens of Baer's 

 Pochard from both North and South Burma, I only succeeded in 



