260 Contributions to the Ornithology of India, 8fc. 



from vent;, 5-2 to 6; wing-s, 15 to 15-75 ; wings, when closed, 

 reached exactly to the end of tail ; bill, at front, including nail, 

 1-7 to 1-75 ; tarsus, 2-45 to 2-75 ; weight, 4Ib 5 oz. to 5ffi 2 oz. ; 

 legs and feet, bright orange ; nails, piuky or greyish white ; bill 

 pale livid fleshy, in one tinged orange on the culmen, in another 

 similarly tinged on the nares and base of lower mandible ; nail 

 whitish or pale yellowish white j irides pale brown. 



949. — Anser indicus, Gmelin. 



This species was much more plentiful in the rivers of the 

 Punjab than the grey lag ; but in Sindh, both on the Indus and 

 inland, it was decidedly less numerous. 



A female measured, length, 27*25 ; expanse, 56 ; tail from 

 vent, 6 ; wing, 16-3 ; wings, when closed, reached 0-6 beyond 

 end of tail; bill, at front, including nail, ]-75; tarsus, 2-8; 

 Weight, 4 lb, 12 ozs. ; legs and feet, pale orange ; claws brown ; 

 bill, pale lemon yellow ; nail, black ; irides, brown. 



952. — Dendrocygna arcuata, Cuv. 



This species appeared to me to be far from common in Sindh 

 during the cold weather, and though mentioned to me as often met 

 with during the inundation, we only once saw it. 



954.— Oasarca rutila. Pall. 



The brahminy duck was very abundant on all the larger rivers 

 of the Punjab, on the Indus, and the inland waters of Sindh. 

 -We often saw fifty in a single day. The numbers of this species 

 that yearly visit India are scarcely less astounding than those 

 of the bar fronted goose. Of both species, a vast proportion, at 

 any rate, breed in the higher plateaux of the Himalayas (not 

 under an elevation of twelve or thirteen thousand feet) in the 

 neighbourhood of the many lakes and pools which these enclose. 



956. — Tadorna COrnuta,G^m. — T. vulpanser,Flem. 



The shieldrake I only noticed about the Muncher lake, where 

 numbers were feeding along the banks on the northern and 

 western shores. They were very wary, and though I stalked 

 many of them and got within a hundred and a hundred and fifty 

 yards, I failed to secure a specimen. In Upper India, in similar 

 large inland pieces of water, as low down as Cawnpore and 

 Fyzabad, a few are generally to be seen during the cold season. 



957.— Spatula clypeata, L. 



I saw the shoveller daily all along the banks of the Jhelum> 

 the Chenab, and the Indus, and again on all the inland lakes of 

 Sindh. They are not worth eating, and though the male but 



V 



