ANAS. 287 



flapping 011 to each of them as soon as it showed itself above water. 

 The mother also pretended to be wounded, and lay on the water 

 every now and then with wings spread out as if unable to fly. All 

 along the Karakash A'alley and also on the high tableland, where- 

 ever there was water overhung by cliffs, there numbers of Brahminy 

 Ducks with broods of young ones were seen, and holes in these 

 cliffs plastered over with droppings were pointed out by the 

 Kerghiz as the places in which they had bred. 



I do not know that any European has as yet taken their eggs 

 within our limits. They have mostly all left the plains by the 15th 

 April, and I should judge that they laid early in May, before, in 

 fact, it is possible to cross the Passes to the places they breed in. 



Long ago Dr. Adams recorded that he had '* found the Anas 

 rutila breeding among the rocks surrounding the fresh- and salt- 

 water lakes of Ladak, and that Bernida indica and Anser albifrons 

 were seen in great numbers in June and July on the Chimman- 

 raree (Tso-mourari) Lake. These lakes are about as far north as 

 it is safe at present for Europeans to travel." 



Mr. F. B. Mallet reinaks, in epistold : " As to the Brahminy 

 Ducks (Casarca rutila), I first observed them in Thibet, north of 

 the Xiti Pass, at an elevation of about 14,000 feet, on a shallow 

 stagnant pond. There were the old pair and eight young ones 

 unable to fly. I bagged all the latter ; but the old parties did not 

 see the fun of it at ah 1 , and kept out of range. This year I first 

 saw a solitary one in Spiti on a small shallow pond about 13,000 

 feet. 



" In neither of these cases was there much vegetation ; in fact, 

 almost none. Afterwards we saw perhaps two dozen old and 

 young in the streams flowing into the Indus in Ladak (part of the 

 Cashmere territory). These streams are rapid, but smooth, and 

 bordered by coarse grassy plains, from a mile to two miles wide, 

 marshy near the middle. They contain plenty of small fish, and 

 the Ducks I shot near the Kiti had a very fishy taste. 



" These streams are about 14,000 to 15,000> feet above the sea, 

 and there were lots of Geese on one of them. 



" I never saw ' Brahminies ' on the rough streams and torrents, 

 except north of the first high ranges of the Himalayas, at elevations 

 of 13,000 to 15,000 feet. 



" They are not found in the outer high ranges of the Himalayas 

 themselves, but in Thibet, Ladak, &c." 



Anas leucoptera (Blyth). The White-winged Wood-Duel-. 



Casarca leucoptera (Bl.\ JercL B. Ind. ii, p. 793. 

 Casarca scutulata (S. Mull.), Hwne, Cat. no. 955. 



Nothing definite is known of the nidification of the White- 

 winged AVood-Duck ; but Colonel Godwin-Austen remarks : " I 

 got this bird at Dimapur on the Dunsiri Eiver ; it appears to 

 prefer sluggish streams like this flowing through forest, for I once 



