68 WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 
to the Australia and even Fiji. In Australia it nests on the 
ground among grass—laying about a dozen creamy-buff eggs— 
and is found feeding out on plains at night. Some in confine- 
ment in the London Zoo much resemble the Indian Whistlers 
in their note, sociable habits, and diving for food. 
The Spotted Whistler. 
Dendrocycga guttata, SALVADORI, Brit. Mus. Cat., 
Birds, Vol. XXVII, p. 184. 
Is about the same size as the last species, but very differently 
coloured. The general hue above is brown, with lighter edges 
to the black feathers: the wings are brown, not ‘black: the 
face and upper neck are grey ish and finely pencilled, and the 
breast and flanks are spotted with white, the abdomen being 
nearly all white. The bill is black and the feet grey ; the 
eyes brown. 
This Duck is an East-Indian species, ranging from Mindanao 
in the Philippines through Celebes and the Moluccas to New 
Guinea. 
The Sheldrake and Brahminy, though differing so 
strikingly in plumage, ought certainly to be kept in the 
same genus, as they are by some ornithologists. Even 
as to colour, their wings are almost identical, being white 
with black primaries, bronze-green secondaries, and 
chestnut tertiaries. The different species of Sheldrake 
(genera Casarca and Tadorna) are, indeed, so nearly 
related that they have been known to “ throw back ”’ 
when crossed, like domestic breeds of one species. In 
the London Zoological Gardens, in 1859, a female of the 
grey-headed South African Brahminy (Casarca cana) 
very like our bird, crossed with a male of the common 
Sheldrake (Tadorna cornuta), and the result wasa couple 
of pencilled dark-grey birds, very closely resembling the 
Australian Grey Sheldrake (Casarca tadornotdes). This 
reminds one forcibly of the case communicated to Dar- 
win by Brent, wherein a cross between a white Ayles- 
bury and a black Labrador Duck produced some birds 
resembling the wild Mallard, the ancestor of both! 
Both Sheldrake and Brahminy are noticeable among 
