The Mergansers. 403 



of the Indian Empire. The first specimen 

 was shot by Colonel Yerbury in the 

 Karachi harbour, and the wings of this 

 bird are now in the British Museum. 

 The second specimen is in the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta, and we are informed 

 by Mr. F. Finn that this bird was obtained 

 in the Calcutta market. It must, there- 

 fore, have been caught somewhere in 

 Bengal. 



There is no reason to think that the 

 Red-breasted Merganser is an excessively 

 rare bird in India, but being entirely a 

 sea-coast species, it is, no doubt, seldom 

 observed. 



The Merganser which was supposed, 

 by an error, to have been shot by Captain 

 E. Bishop at Manora Point, Karachi, was 

 in reality shot outside our limits. Captain 

 Bishop, writing to Mr. Cumming on 

 February 21st, 1890, says: — "The Mer- 

 ganser presented by me to the Karachi 

 Museum was shot at Charbar, Mekran 

 Coast, and not at Karachi, as stated in 

 Mr. Murray's work." 



The bird of this group which Mr. E. 

 H. Aitken obtained in the month of 

 December in the Bombay harbour, from 

 the fact of its being found on the sea- 

 coast, was most probably of the present 



