456 EEISMATURA I.EUCOCEPHALA. 



common enougb near Darjeeling station. But the eloselr- 

 allied species, P. leucogaster^ is abundant with us. I listened to, 

 and watched a sing-le individual of it for nearly an hour one 

 morning in April. It was flying from tree to tree feeding, and 

 for about the first quarter of an hour its call was — too-ta-toot; 

 then it broke into — whoot-a-ha-hoot, and later its call changed 

 to gouh-ur-r-T-r, sometimes gouh-gouk only, and more rarely 

 nr-'r-r-r only without the gouk ; it then reverted to its too-ta^ 

 toot, and when I left it had recommenced its whoot-a-ha-hoot 

 and apparently intended going through the full series. When 

 close to the bird the notes sounded interrupted, as it were, which 

 was probably caused by the sound coming in contact with the 

 curve of its long bill instead of straight from the throat as 

 from birds with straight or shorter bills. It was feeding most- 

 ly on the fruit of Carpinia, and, like most long-billed birds when 

 feeding on trees, almost always reached up for the berries 

 instead of getting above them, and reaching downwards as shorter- 

 billed birds usually do. One of this species, which I dissected, 

 Lad swallowed, besides seeds and small grubs, a horrible stink- 

 ing bug which was perfectly whole, and still as painfully 

 odorific as it could ever have been in life. 



Of all the Old-world Ducks there is perhaps no more re- 

 mai'kable form than Erismatura leucocephala, the White-headed 

 Duck, with its enormously broad bill and lengthened, stiff, 

 pointed, almost Woodpecker-like tail. 



Hitherto this species has only been known to occur in South- 

 ern Europe, Northern Africa, Asia Minor, Palestine, and lastly 

 Turkestan, where Severtsoff says that it is seen on passage, and 

 even breeds. 



No one has observed it in Mesopotamia or Persia, and its 

 occurrence therefore near Kalat-i-Ghilzai, so much to the south 

 and east of the previously known limits of its range, is well 

 worthy of notice, and brings it within the limits of the British- 

 Asian Empire and its dependencies. 



On the 20th October 1879, Col. 0. B. St. John, r.e., at that 

 time, I think, Governor of Candahar, shot a couple of Ducks of a 

 type quite unknown to him in the Jameh river near Kalat-i- 

 Ghilzai, which he kindly forwarded to me with other specimens, 

 that, despite incessant hard-work of all kinds, he has been stea- 

 dily collecting ever since he went to Kelat and Afghanistan. 



These Ducks proved to be an immature pair of the White- 

 headed Duck. 



