DUCKS. 149 



brighter rosy on the top of the head in the breeding-season. Mr. F. B. Sirason, in 

 'The Ibis' for 1884, gives some interesting notes about this lovely duck, and tells 

 how, during a shooting-party at Purneah, he secured a couple of specimens for Dr. 

 Jerdon as follows : " Whilst going on I marked a small party of pink-headed ducks 

 into one of the pools, and immediately told Jerdon that if he w r ould leave the party 

 and come with me I thought I could get a nice shot at his long-coveted birds. So 

 we took four elephants and started. Of course with noisy, splashing animals any 

 approach to ducks was impossible; on the other hand, the pool was full of huge 

 crocodiles. We could see them with our glasses. However, I agreed to go on foot, 

 the elephants to come to me the moment the shots were fired. I passed through the 

 tall bamboo-grass in water deepening till it was nearly up to my waist as I came to the 

 edge, and found myself about twenty yards from ten or a dozen of the ducks. They 

 were not sitting close together, so I shot the finest with one barrel, and another as they 

 rose, and I made off to the elephants as hard as I could. Once safe on Behemoth, I 

 surveyed with Jerdon the sight, familiar to every Indian ornithologist, but always 

 enjoyable and never to be forgotten, of the wonderful variety of bird-life to be seen 

 in a spot like this. After having discussed all the species we saw, we examined the 

 two pink-headed ducks we had picked up with the aid of the elephants. Jerdon was 

 delighted with them, and said that the pink of the head was far more beautiful than 

 in dried specimens." Mr. Simson states that this species is far from uncommon in a 

 restricted area of Bengal, its home being the southern part of the district of Purneah, 

 and in the country bordering the left bank of the Ganges, between the Coosy River, 

 which separates Purneah from Bhangalpore, and in the Maldah district. For various 

 reasons it is little known, however, to the Bengal sportsman and ornithologist, and is 

 considered rare, the chief reasons being that it is poor on the table, and that it is 

 never very numerous, nor goes in flocks, nor associates with other ducks. It is resident 

 all the year round, pairing and nesting in short grass on dry land at some distance 

 from the pools. 



At the southern extremity of South America lives a singular sea-duck, with lobed 

 hind toe, which, on the other hand, seems to have the trachea of a fresh-water duck. 

 The early travelers, on account of its curious habits, bestowed upon it the cognomen 

 of the 'race-horse duck,' but those of the present century prefer to call it the 

 ' steamer duck ' or * side- wheel duck,' " on account of its movements when swimming 

 presenting a strong resemblance to those of a paddle-wheel steamer." Others call it 

 the ' logger-head duck,' and its systematic name is Tachyeres cinereus. At one time 

 it was thought that there were two species, one incapable of flight, the other possessed 

 of volant powers, but Mr. R O. Cunningham seems to have established the fact that 

 the ' flying logger-head ' is only the young bird, and that the power of flight departs 

 from it as it grows old, or, to use Cunningham's own words, "that, as the bird 

 increases in size and weight, owing to the deposition of an increased amount of 

 mineral matter in the bones and various other causes, it gradually abandons the habit 

 of flight, finding that the speed witli which it can progress through the water by 

 means of the rapid movements of its wings, together with its diving-powers, are 

 sufficient to preserve it from threatened danger." 



The eiders form a particularly striking group among the sea-ducks, also peculiar 

 in some structural characters, having an unfenestrated labyrinth like the foregoing 

 species. Also, in the great difference in the coloration of the sexes, and in the males 

 assuming the plumage of the female for a short season following the breeding, they 



