INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. \ 185 



I left the place, where, with the Cachari, I had come across the pair of 

 Wood Ducks ; the tree was on the border of the stream mentioned and 

 not far from where we had heard the birds calling, so that I think very 

 likely the egg is that of the White-winged Wood Duck. It measures 

 about 2- 1"X 1-38". 



Genus RHODONESSA. 



The genus Rhodonessa, like the former, consists of but one species, 

 which species is confined to Indian limits. In adult or semi-adult birds 

 the colour of the head is sufficient to define it at a glance ; should, 

 however, the bird be in its first plumage, reference must be made to its 

 loreal feathering, as mentioned in the key above. 



(8) Rhodonessa caryophyllacea. The Pink-headed Duck. 



Anas caryophyllacea. Jerdon, " Birds of India," III, p. 800; Hume, 

 "Nests and Eggs," p. 644 ; Fairbank, " Str. Feath.," IV, p. 264; 

 Davidson, ibid, YII, p. 95 ; Ball, ibid, p. 232 ; Hume, ibid, p. 492 ; -id., 

 ibid, VIII, p. 801 ; Hume and Marsh., " Game Birds," III, pp. 174, 

 435 ; Barnes, " Birds of Bombay," p. 404. 



Rhodonessa caryophyllacea. Ball, " Str. Feath.," II, p. 438 ; Hume, 

 ibid, VIII, p. 115 ; id., Cat. No. 960 ; Butler, " Str. Feath.," IX, 

 p. 437 ; Reid, ibid, X, p. 81 ; Hume and Marsh., " Game Birds," III, 

 pp. 173, 435 ; Oates/' Birds of British Burmah," IT, p. 284 ; A. Taylor, 

 <' Str. Feath.," X, p. 531 ; Hume, ibid, XI, p. 344 ; Hume, " Nests and 

 Eggs " (Oates' ed.\ III, p. 290 ; Salvadori, " Cat. B. of B. Museum," 

 XXVII, p. 61. 



Description : Adult Male. — Head, sides of neck and hind neck a 

 beautiful rosy-pink, with, in the breeding season, a small tuft of still 

 brighter rosy on the top of the head ; throat, dark brown ; rest of the 

 plumage fine, glossy, dark chocolate-brown, paler and less glossed beneath, 

 but under-tail coverts very dark ; mantle, scapulars, breasts and sides 

 with very fine rosy- whitish ■vermiculations or points ; edge of the wing 

 whitish ; speculum reddish-fawn or dull salmon colour, with a white band 

 at the tip of the secondaries ; outer web and tip of the outer pri- 

 maries brown ; the inner webs and inner primaries buff; tertials glossy 

 chocolate-brown, narrowly edged with black on the outer webs ; under- 

 wing coverts and quills beneath a pale pink colour, with a satin lustre ; 

 ( tail chocolate-brown (Salvadori). 



