1866] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON THE ANATIDjE. 149 



Sp. 7. Dendrocygna vagans. 



I was not aware when I wrote my previous notes that this species 

 had been described and figured in Fraser's ' Zoologia Typica' (pi. 68) 

 under the MS. name bestowed upon it by Mr. Eyton. There can 

 be no doubt, therefore, that this name should be adopted as its first 

 given and very appropriate designation. Mr. Gould has apparently 

 altogether overlooked my notes on this species, as in his recently 

 published ' Handbook to the Birds of Australia ' (vol. ii. p. 374) he 

 calls it Dendrocygna gouldi. But, as I have already shown (P. Z. S. 

 1864, p. 300), the Australian bird to which the late Prince Charles 

 Bonaparte gave this MS. name is not separable from the Moluccan 

 and Philippine-Island Dendrocygna vagans. 



I am indebted to my friend Dr. G. Bennett for a notice of the 

 occurrence of this species in a more southern locality than has 

 hitherto been recorded. In a letter from him, dated Sydney, May 

 19th, 1865, the following passage occurs: — 



"A curious occurrence took place on March 17th (Easter Monday), 

 being a holiday. When several thousand persons were about the 

 aviary in the Botanic Gardens, three wild Whistling Ducks {Dendro- 

 cygna arcuata, Gould) flew down to the tame pair of these birds we 

 have had for some time in a pond in the Gardens. They remained 

 some time swimming about in the pond with them (and could have 

 been easily shot), and then took their departure, and have not been 

 seen since. What renders this more singular is that the Whistling 

 Duck is very rarely or never seen nearer to Sydney than Port Mac- 

 quarie, and principally inhabits the northern districts." 



Mr. G. R. Gray, in his list of Pacific Island Birds*, has also 

 noted the occurrence of this species in the Fiji Islands. 



Since I wrote the article above referred to on Dendrocygna, the 

 British Museum has acquired a specimen of Dendrocygna fulva 

 (Gm.) from Mexico, which I have thus had an opportunity of exa- 

 mining for the first time. This species is very like D. major in form 

 and plumage, and is, in fact, hardly to be distinguished from it ex- 

 cept by its smaller size and shorter bill. If, as I believe is the case, 

 though I have not yet had an opportunity of comparing specimens 

 from South America, Dendrocygna virgata (Max.) is identical with 

 D. fulva, we have three very closely allied species presenting us with 

 the following distribution in the Tropics : — 



1. D. vagans, from the Philippines, through the Moluccas, to 

 N.E. Australia and Fiji Islands. 



2. D. major, peninsula of India and Madagascar. 



3. D. fulva, Central and Southern America. 



The pair of Variegated Sheldrakes (Tadorna variegata), which I 

 have spoken of in my notes on the birds of that group (P. Z. S. 1864, 

 p. 190) as having been received from Mr. Sharpley in 1863, bred in 

 the Society's Gardens for the first time in the spring of last year, in 



* ' Cat. of Birds of the Tropical Islands of the Pacific Ocean in the Collection 

 of the British Museum' (London, 1860), p. 54. 



