494 NOTES. 



shot it told me that he saw five or six more at the same 

 time, and that he fancied it was not uncommon about the hills 

 in that neighbourhood/' 



E. A. Butler, Captain. 

 Belgaum, 2ticl September 1879. 



oii^B, 



At last, when I had begun to believe the quest almost hope- 

 less, I have succeeded in obtaining an Indian killed specimen 

 of the Clucking Teal, Qiierquedula formosa, Georgi — {Anas 

 glocitans of Pallas.) 



For this very valuable gpeciraen I am indebted to Mr. W. N. 

 Chill, who, during the last year, has really done more in the 

 matter of Water Birds than any one else in India. He procured 

 the specimen on the 1st of November not very far from Sultan- 

 pore, and some 22 miles west of Delhi. 



Mr. Chill shows us what a man can do who sets to work 

 in earnest. Stationed at one of the most important posts of 

 the Inland Customs Department, admittedly one of the most 

 indefatigable members of that hard- worked service, with a circle 

 of scarcely 20 miles in diameter, outside of which he never 

 goes — a circle, too, by no means specially favourable for orni- 

 thological work, he has yet managed merely in moving about 

 from factory to factory, and village to village, supervising salt 

 manufacture, and preventing smuggling, to secure during the 

 past year, the first ^gialitis hiaticula, the second Querque- 

 dula glocitans, the third, fourth, and fifth Anser erythropus, and 

 the fourth Querquedula falcata, as yet recorded from the 

 British-Indian Empire. 



A score or so more persevering workers like Messrs. Chill, 

 Doig, Cripps, Butler, Vidal, Reid, &c., would greatly help to 

 make our knowledge of the species that visit India, exhaustive 

 and complete. 



The specimen of Querquedula glocitans, now obtained by Mr. 

 Chill, is rather a young male, which has not" fully assumed the 

 adult plumage, or it may be (for we know little of the changes 

 of plumage of this species) a male, assuming winter plumage. 



The whole forehead, crown, and occiput is a red brown, 

 intermingled with black — the latter being the colour of the 

 bases of the feathers, and the whole of the buffy face has the 

 feathers narrowly tipped with dusky brown. 



