328 ANATID.E. 



I HAVE followed the example of several modern zoolo- 

 gists in adopting the generic term Fuligula, for an exten- 

 sive series of oceanic Ducks, the general characters and 

 habits of which are noticed in the paragraph at page 298. 

 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 Calories, Art. 406. 



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

 as an occasional visiter 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, is 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 at Erith in Kent. 



This species has been obtained very recently in Norfolk 

 in January 1844, and at Falmouth in March 1845. 



* " Nous avons cru necessaire de separer des canards proprement dits, et de 

 reunir, toutes ces especes a doigt post6rieur 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 memes que chez 

 les canards a doigt post^rieur lisse, et que les caracteres faciles a saisir fournissent 

 de tres-bons moyens pour etablir la difference ge"nerique entre ces deux groupes." 

 + Zoological Journal, vol. ii. page 492. 



