280 INDIAN DUCKS 



The last was recorded in the ' Bombay Natural History Society's 

 Journal,' by Mr. J. D. Inverarity,"who shot a female on a small 

 tank near Panwell on January 18th, 1884. 



" Colonel McMaster is of the opinion that one year, in January, 

 he saw several birds of this species, on marshes and salt lakes, 

 between Chicacole and Berhampur, in the Northern Circars (say 

 190° N. lat.), and the male is a bird that so esperienced a sportsman 

 could hardly mistake for any other species that occurs there." 



I do not know if Colonel McMaster said that they were adult 

 birds that be saw, if so, perhaps — probably in fact — he was not 

 mistaken ; but if they were the common form of young bird usually 

 found in India, he might very well indeed have been mistaken. 

 It was an unlikely thing, too, that he should have seen several birds 

 when they are of such rare occurrence. On the other hand, I think 

 there is no doubt that a great many young birds are yearly missed 

 owing to these being mistaken for young pochards of other kinds. 



In addition to those already recorded, I have had the following 

 pass through my hands : A fine adult male, procured in the Calcutta 

 bazaar in 1907, but where it was taken the dealer could not tell me. 

 A young female sent me as a specimen of the eastern white-eye, 

 fiom Chittagong, and shot on the coast. A young female shot by 

 Mr. Moore in Lakhimpur in January, 1904. Finally, two specimens 

 shot by myself in the same district, one in March, 1902, and one in 

 November, 1903. On the former occasion the bird was a single 

 one in company with a flight of crested pochards ; on the second 

 occasion there was a flock of about a dozen birds, but after I had 

 shot one and missed another as they were driven overhead, I never 

 saw them again. 



Captain Wall has recorded the Scaup from Oudh, and quotes 

 abstracts from the Sporting Diary of the Eev. J. Gompertz, which 

 shows that gentleman to have shot no less than eleven specimens 

 between 1897 and 1904 inclusive, all in Oudh. 



Possibly the most likely place for this bird to be met with in 

 India would be the coast about the Gulf of Cutch, and north to 

 Karachi, as the Scaup, by preference, is a sea bird. Such as are 

 met with in India are doubtless " moving on " in hopes of getting 

 to some coast eventually. Even in China they wander further south 



