OXTURA LEUCOCEPHALA 303 



Young Male. — " Very similar in pluuitage to the okl female, only some- 

 what more ruddy on the back." (Salvadori.) 



Young in Down.^" Brown-grey ; upper part of the head and cheeks dark- 

 brown ; a streak below the eye, from the base of the bill to the nape, throat, 

 and sides of the upper part of the neck dull greyish-white undulated with 

 dusky; a whitish spot on each side of the rump just below the wings ; edge 

 of the wing and under wing-coverts whitish." {Salvadori.} 



Distribution. — The "White-headed Duck inhabits the countries 

 surrounding the Mediterranean, and extends thence into Western 

 Central Asia, and, according to Finsch, as far north as Southern 

 Siberia, and also, as a straggler only, into Germany and Holland, 

 being, over the greater portion of its range, either resident or only 

 locally migratory. 



In India it is undoubtedly a very rare duck. When Hume and 

 Marshall published the ' Game-Birds,' the only record of the Stiff- 

 tail Duck was the following : — 



"On the 20th October, 1879, Col. 0. B. St. John, E.E., at that 

 time Governor, I think, of Kandahar, shot a couple of ducks, of a 

 type quite unknown to him, in the Jumeh river, near Khelat-i-ghilzai. 

 Those ducks proved to be an immature pair of the White-headed 

 Duck." 



Since this was written, however, there have been further com- 

 paratively numerous records of this duck. In ' Stray Feathers ' (in 

 loc. cit.) are the following. Mr. Field writes of a bird sent to 

 Mr. Hume :— 



" I shot this bird on the 28th October at the 'Old Nullah,' about 

 a mile from the Civil Station of Ludhiana, Punjab. It was sitting 

 alone in a pool. I stalked up close behind some reeds, and then 

 showed myself, expecting to see it fly. All it did was to cock its 

 little stiff, thin, pointed tail, and swim off in a quiet way for some ten 

 yards. Its appearance, while swimming with its tail upturned, was 

 most peculiar. I tried to frighten it into flying, but it would not 

 rise ; so I shot it whilst swimming." 



Mr. Hume thought records of this bird would soon come to hand 

 after this was written, and with reason, for " on the 21st January, 

 1882, Mr. Chill obtained an immature male of this species near the 

 Najafgarh jheel (approximately lat. 29^ N., long. 77° E.), and again, 

 another near the same locality on the 28th October of the same year." 



