330 ANATtiXE. 



sive series of oceanic Ducks, the general characters and 

 habits of which are noticed in the paragraph at page 299. 

 The necessity for this distinction has been acknowledged 

 by M. Temminck himself, and the grounds for the sepa- 

 ration are stated in the note below,* from the 68th No. of 

 the Planches Colories, Art.,406. 



I had the pleasure of first noticing-)- this handsome Duck 

 as an occasional visitor to this country in January, 1826, 

 when a male was shot near Boston, while feeding on fresh 

 water in company with some Wigeons. Though a well- 

 known species, inhabiting the eastern parts of Europe, it 

 had not previously been recorded to have been killed in 

 England. During the same winter several others were 

 obtained ; more than one occurred in the London markets, 

 and were eagerly purchased for collectors. One was se- 

 cured by Mr. Bartlett, as noticed in the Naturalist, vol. 

 iii. p. 420. Since then a specimen has been killed at 

 Yarmouth, another at Colchester, now in the Museum of 

 the Cambridge Philosophical Society ; and the female re- 

 presented by Mr. Gould, in the sixth Part of his Birds 

 of Europe, was in the collection of the Hon. W. T. T. 

 Fiennes. This specimen was killed out of a flock of 

 eighteen, on the Thames, near that gentleman's estate, 

 Belvidere, at Erith in Kent. 



This species was obtained in Norfolk, in January, 1 844, 

 at Falmouth, in March, 1845, and in 1854 in Lincoln- 

 shire. 



* " Nous avons cru ngcessaire de se"parer des canards proprement dita, 

 et de re"unir toutes ces especes a doigt poste"rieur garni d'un rudiment de 

 membrane, vu que le squelette de ces oiseaux nous offre des differences 

 marquees et constantes ; que leur maniere de vivre et le choix des alimens 

 ne sont pas les me'mes que chez les canards a doigt posterieur lisse, et que 

 les caracteres faciles a saisir fournissent de tres-bons moyens pour e"tablir 

 la difference ge"ne"rique entre des deux groupes." 



f Zoological Journal, vol. ii. page 492. 



