276 INDIAN DrCKS 



getting two or three from the Shan States and one from near 

 Bhamo ; all the others sent me were fine specimens of the Common 

 White-eye. I think the inference to be drawn is that, even in 

 Burma, Baer's Pochard is not the common type, and the only other 

 record so far in Burma is that of Hopwood, who said he saw half-a- 

 dozen, and shot two, in Arakan, and a single bird in the Chindwin. 



Nidification. — Seebohiu, in his ' Birds of the Japanese Empire,' 

 says that "the Siberian White-Eyed Duck breeds in the valley of 

 the Amoor." This is the only note of its breeding which I can 

 find. 



It is probable that in nidification it will differ in no way from 

 the Common White-eye, though we may expect to find its eggs to 

 average somewhat larger, and the single egg in my possession bears 

 this out. It is a very dirty dull-coloured drab, in shape a broad 

 regular ellipse, and it measures 2'91 X 1'51 inches. It has no gloss, 

 and the texture is exactly the same as that of N. ii. uyroca. 



General Habits. — Again indenting on Finn, I quote from the 

 ' Asian ' : — 



" No one seems to have had much opportunity of observing this 

 duck in a wild state, and my own observations have been restricted 

 to captives. It is a better walker than most Pochards, and, I liave 

 fancied, hardly so fine a diver. It certainly, judging from the birds 

 in the fine water-aviary in the Alipore Zoological Gardens, rises 

 more easily on the wing, and flies with less effort than other 

 Pochards. I notice that at Alipore our birds can rise well up into 

 the roof and fly roiind and round like the surface-feeding ducks. 

 The species appears to stand the heat less well than the common 

 white eye, and probably breeds in a higher latitude. I am ashamed 

 to say that, having bad more to do with this species than anyone, I 

 do not know how it tastes." 



I ate part of the flesh of one of my birds, and it was not at all 

 good, not even good enough to finisli. 



I remember about 1898-99, Mr. J. Kennedy, then Deputy Com- 

 missioner, Cachar, shot a White-eye up in the North Cachar Hills, 

 which attracted my notice from its great weight and very dark 

 glossy head. I was not then specially interested in duck, except 

 when on the table, and put the bird down as an abnormally coloured 

 and very large Common White-eye ; but now I have no doubt that it 

 was a good specimen of the Eastern White-eye. 



