588 BRITISH BIRDS. 



FULIGULA ALBEOLA. 

 BUFFEL-HEADED DUCK. 



Auas byberna, ] 



Anas querquedula ludoviciana, > Bn'ss. Oni. vi. pp. 349, 461, 464 (1760). 



Anas querquedula carolinensis, ) 



Anas albeola, Limi. Syst. Nat. i. p. 199 (1706) ; et auctorum plxirimorum — 



(Xuffall), (Cottes), {^Baird, Brewer, ^- Itidyway), {Dresser), (Sai(nders), Sec. 

 Anas bucepbala, I ^.^^^^ ^ j^^^^ j_ 200, 201 (17G6). 

 Anas rustica, 1 



Clangaila albeola (Linn.), Steph. Shard's Gen. Zool. xii. pt. ii. p. 184 (1824). 

 Fuligula albeola {Linn), Bonap. Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. York, ii. p. 394 (1820). . 

 Bucepbala albeola {Linn.), Baird, B. N Amer. p. 797 (1858). 



The BufFel-headed Duck was first recorded as a British bird by Donovan 

 in 1819j though no particulars are given ; but an example was shot near 

 Yarmoutli in the M'iuter of 1830 (Lubbock, ' Fauna of Norfolk/ p. 119). 

 Au example in the Margate Museum^ said by Yarrell to have been ob- 

 tained in Orkney, proved afterwards to have been set up from a foreign 

 skin. 



Harting (' Handbook British Birds/ p. 161) records an example which 

 he examined, and which, he was informed, had been killed in the winter of 

 1841 at West INIud, near Devonport, in Devonshire ; but doubt has since 

 been thrown on the authenticity of this specimen. 



A third British example was shot in the winter of 1864—65 at Bessingly 

 Beck, near Bridlington, in Yorkshire (Cordcaux, 'Zoologist,' 1865, p. 9659). 

 An example in the British Museum, labelled Norfolk, can scarcely be 

 regarded as authentic. 



Scotland claims to add a fourth and fifth British-killed Buflel-headed 

 Duck to the list (Gray, ' Birds of the West of Scotland/ p. 396). A male 

 is said to have been shot on the Loch of Loriston^ in Aberdeenshire, in 

 January 1865, and another male is in the Banff Museum, Mhich is said to 

 have been shot in the Loch of Strathbeg forty or fifty years ago. 



According to the old proverb, which says that "what is hit is history, 

 but what is missed is mystery," the occurrence of the Buffel-headed Duck 

 in Ireland must still be regarded as mysterious ; but there is strong 

 evidence in its favour (Payne- Gall wey^ 'Fowler in Ireland,' p. 110). 



The Buffel-headed Duck breeds throughout Arctic America up to the 

 limit of forest-growth, wintering in the United States, the West Indies, and 

 on the coasts of Mexico. It has once been obtained in Greenland, and 



