558 



ON A NEW SPECIES OF GREY DUCK 



{POLTONETTA HARINGTONI) FROM BURMA. 



By Eugene W. Oates. 



{Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on the 

 l(jth December 1906.) 



Captain H. H. Harington has been for some time past re-arranging 

 the large series of Ducks in the Museum of Natural History, South 

 Kensington, and he has drawn my attention to the difference which 

 exists between the Grey Duck of India, or Spot-bill, and the Grey 

 Duck of Burma. 



There certainly is a very constant and well-marked difference between 

 the two birds, and I therefore propose to separate the eastern species 

 by the name of 



Polionetta habingtoni, n. sp. 



Similar to P. poecilorhyncha, the Spot-bill or Grey Duck of India 

 but constantly wanting the orange coloured patches which adorn 

 the base of the upper mandible of that species. The bill is, more- 

 over, much smaller, measuring two inches from the point of the fore- 

 head to the tip of the nail, against two and-a-quarter inches in 

 P. poecilorhyncha. 



There are now five specimens of this new bird in the Museum, but 

 they are all from the Shan States. Captain Harington, however, 

 distinctly recollects that the Grey Ducks he shot on the Irrawaddy had 

 the base of the bill entirely black, and were similar to the Grey Ducks 

 that he got in the Shan States. 



The distribution of the two species will thus be: — 



P. poecilorhyncha. the Indian Peninsula, Assam, Sylhet, Cachar and 

 Manipur. 



P. haringtoni, the valley of the Irrawaddy river and the Shan States. 

 Major Evans informs me that he has shot Grey Duck near Toungoo, at 

 Tandawgyi on the Pegu river, and at Thatone. There can be little 

 doubt but that they were P. haringtoni. 



The Chinese Grey Duck, P. zonorhyncha, has occurred several times 

 in Assam, and I have lately acquired for my collection two specimens 

 shot in that province and recorded in the Society's journal. 



