INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 187 



Only colours given, however, in the Catalogue are those quoted from 

 Shillingford. I do not know the authority from which these are taken, 

 and Shillingford himself does not seem to have sexed his specimens. 



Oates says that of the birds he has examined he has found the females 

 to be about equal to the males in size. Oates gives the wing as 11", 

 The only other record of female measurements is in c thee Appendix to 

 '*' Game Birds" where a female is said to be 23" long with a wing of 10*5', 

 and an expanse of 37" j strange to say also she weighed more than three 

 out of the four males that are mentioned in the same place. 



Young. — Head and neck pale rose-whitish colour, with the top of 

 the head, nape and hind-neck brown ; the whole plumage lighter brown ; 

 the underparts pale dull brown, with the edges of the feathers whitish 

 (Salvadori). 



I do not understand the young bird depicted in the plate in " Game 

 Birds " and have never heard of any bird like it in plumage, the " rcse- 

 whitish " colour being always a distinct feature. 



The head-quarters of this duok are, as Hume says, Bengal, north of 

 the Ganges and west of the Brahmapootra rivers ; above all it is most 

 common in Maldah, Purneah, Purulia and adjoining districts, the two 

 first-named places being especially favoured. It has also been obtained in 

 Arrah, Mozufferpore, Chota Nagpur and Eanchi, where it is only a rare 

 bird, and in Singhboom, where it is rather more common. It is also 

 found sparingly through Orissa and as far south as Madras, and all 

 through Eastern Bengal and Assam up to Manipur, where Hume 

 obtained it. He says in Vol. XI of il Stray Feathers " about Khodo-r 

 nessa :— " This species is very scarce in Manipur. I only saw it at the 

 Lagtak Lake, and there I only saw one party that kept up in a weedy 

 lagoon at the north-east corner of the lake, where it was impossible to 

 get them. I did get a single bird, but that was only by lying upon 

 several occasions in a thick reed bed and getting them driven. Three 

 times they went in the wrong direction, but having at last made out 

 their line, I laid up in the right place the fourth time and knocked down 

 a brace, of which, however, I only recovered one ; I had no dog. This 

 species occurs in Sylhet; and has been procured in various parts of the 

 Assam Valley right up to Sadiya, but alike in Assam and Sylhet (I seem 

 to have no record of its occurrence in Cachar) it appears to be excessively 

 rare, little more than an occasional straggler," 

 3 



