LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 521 
examined it very carefully when we had finished off the shoot- 
ing on that jhil, and he came to the conclusion that it was 
that very rare duck, the white-faced or stiff-tailed duck. 
On getting home we consulted the volume on ducks, and 
there could be no doubt whatever that it was the stiff-tailed 
duck. Unfortunately the bird was mixed up with the others 
she that day, and sent into Bareilly, and who got it we don’t 
now. 
It was, however, undoubtedly the stiff-tailed duck. After 
reading your account of the habits of the bird we have come 
to the conclusion that it was zo¢ wounded when we first notic- 
edit; we saw no other and did not sex it. The name of 
the jhil is the “ Musapur Jhil.” 
The Mala swamp is a grand place for duck if one could 
only retrieve all the birds shot, but the “ nurkul” reeds 
are so thick and high that one loses half or more of the 
birds. 
W. C. PLOWDEN. 
BAREILLY, 7th April, 1883. 
[Vide ante, p. 420.—ED., 8.F.] 
SIR, 
A SPECIMEN of a stiff-tailed duck was brought to 
me by a native who wounded it out of a small number near 
Keengurh on this side of the Indus in February of this year. 
The bird lived for a week in captivity. The birds were 
living on a large, shallow, but very open jhil which is slightly 
saltish, 
T. BoMFORD. 
MULTAN, 20¢2 June, 1887. 
Sir 
‘ You may care to note that I shot two Florican 
(females) to-day at Nawa tank, seven miles east of Baroda city. 
I saw one (a female) in the same place in March, 1883. 
Except these three I have never heard of their being here 
before the rains. They generally come in July (late} and dis- 
appear in September. 
I tried last winter to identify all the ducks I shot, and found 
that you had noted all the varieties I met with as visiting 
Guzerat. ; 
Last year, on June Ist, I shot three Painted Snipe at 
Pavagadh, 30 miles east of this. I think a few “ painters” 
stay in the quietest tanks all the year, Two Bitterns were 
