JOURNAL 



OF THE 



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Vol. xi. BOMBAY. No. I. 



INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



By E. C. Stuart Baker, F.Z.S. 



(Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 

 18th November, 1896.) 



My excuses for undertaking to attempt to compile a series of 

 articles on the order Chenomorphce are two : first, that no one else 

 could be found willing to deal with the work ; second, that it 

 consists mainly of extracts from what other men have written and 

 involves but little that is original. In order, however, that in 

 addition to what is already on record something new or interesting 

 may find a place in these papers, I sincerely trust that ornithologists 

 and sportsmen will send me any notes they possess connected with 

 ducks either from a sportsman's or an ornithologist's point of view. 

 Few ducks remain throughout the year in India and breed, but even 

 these few are not as widely or as thoroughly known as they ought to be. 



The classification I have adopted is that of Salvadori, as given in 

 Vol. XXVII of the " Catalogue of the Birds of the British Museum ;" 

 and the keys to sub-orders, families, sub-families, and genera, etc., are 

 taken from that book, merely changed, so far as is necessary for 

 Indian ducks, by eliminating such matter as does not refer to them 

 and other minor alterations. The references made are only to books 

 which refer to the birds as Indian birds, as a complete reference to 

 synonyms and publications would both have taken too much time and 

 have proved of but little interest to the general reader. 



