g6 WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 
the ground in cover or on a low branch of a tree. The 
Spotted-bill flies as quickly as the Mallard, and swims 
and dives better, being very hard to catch if wounded ; 
its note, in both sexes, is much like that of this its ally. 
It has been introduced into European collections of 
waterfowl, and breeds well, sometimes hybridizing 
with the Mallard ; and this hybrid is at least partly fer- 
tile. But the intermixture of these two very beautitul 
and distinct species is strongly to be deprecated, except 
for the purpose of a scientific experiment. 
It would appear that the female Spotted-bill prefers 
the Mallard to her own drakes, for on two occasions, on 
Mr. W. Rutledge’s premises, a Spotted-bill Duck has 
mated with a Mallard-coloured tame drake, in spite of 
the presence of males of her own species ; in one case 
eggs were laid, andin the other, the birds were several 
times seen to pair. 
The Yellow-nib. 
Anas zonorhyncha, SALVADORI, British Museum 
Catalogue of Birds, Vol. XXVII, p. 211. 
This Duck is very like the Spotted-bill, but has a blue 
wing-bar like the Mallard, with no white in front of it, 
and very little white on the tertiaries ; there is no red 
on the bill, and the yellow tip of this is smaller than in 
the Spotted-bill ; and the whole belly is dark, while in 
that species it is hght and spotted down to the thighs. 
The female is paler than the male, and the young are 
lighter still, and resemble the Spotted-bill in having a 
white border in front of the wing-bar and a considerable 
amount of white on the tertiaries. 
In the Aszan for January roth, 1809, page 376, 
‘“ Earth-worm, ’’ writing from Kengtung, South Shan 
States, enumerated 24 A. zonorhyncha as shot there in 
the previous year, and showed that it bred there. 
Its usual breeding place is North-East Asia, including 
