BIMACULATED DUCK. 261 



native of Siberia, frequenting Lake Baikal and the river 

 Lena ; and was named by him Anas glocitans.* On the 

 authority of Mr. Pennant the species has subsequently 

 been included among the birds of Great Britain, by writers 

 on British Ornithology ; but no further account has 

 reached us of the specimen alluded to by that distinguished 

 naturalist, nor has it been ascertained whether it was pre- 

 served after it was communicated to him. The specimen 

 of both male and female, from which I have taken the 

 description, were sent up from a decoy near Maldon in 

 Essex, to Leadenhall market, in the winter of 1812-13. 

 Here they were observed by a respectable naturalist, Mr. 

 George Weighton, of Fountain Place, City-road, who 

 immediately purchased them and set them up. From his 

 collection they have subsequently passed into mine. There 

 can be little doubt of the two birds being sexes of the same 

 species. They agree in all the essential particulars that 

 serve to identify the species of this family ; their bill, legs, 

 and feet, exactly according in structure, and the colouring 

 and markings of the speculum on the wings, a distinguishing 

 character among the Anatida, being precisely the same. 

 We have moreover, in favour of this conclusion, the 

 negative evidence that the other sex of neither of these 

 birds has until now been ascertained ; and we have the 

 positive evidence that both these specimens were taken in 

 the same decoy and at the same time. 11 



Such was the account of this species, furnished by one 

 of our most distinguished naturalists at that time, and but 

 little has been learned since. Of its habits or its nidifica- 

 tion, nothing, that I am aware of, is known. Mr. Proctor 

 sent me word that he saw this species at Iceland, but 

 could not obtain it. M. Temminck, including a notice of 



* There is, however, reason to believe that the glodtans of English authors is 

 the formosa of Pallas. 



