660 



INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 

 By E. C. Stuart Baker, f.z.s. 

 Genus ^x. 

 According to the British Museum Catalogue thn Mandarin Duck is 

 included in the Plectropteringe and the key is as follows : — 

 No comb on base of bill. 



Head crested ^x. 



Both Ogilvie-Grant and E. Gates however, pointed out to me that a 

 far better generic character is provided in the silver-grey edging to the 

 primaries, a character by which it may be at once distinguished from 

 any other Indian duck. 



-^X GALERICULATA. 



The Mandarin Duck. 



Anas galericulata — Lath., Ind., Orni. ii., p. 871. 



JSx galericulatar~Q(OVi\A B. of Asia, vii., p. 89. Salvadori, Cat. B. B. 

 M., xxvii., p. 76. Gates' " Game Birds of Ind." ii., p. 136. Finn, 

 '* Fancy Waterfowl, " p. 26. Bennett, " Wanderings in New South 

 Wales," ii., p. 62. Latham, Syn., iii., p. 548. 



Description. Adult Male. — Supercilium from the base of the bill to the 

 end of the crest pure white ; forehead to nape glossy green, thence the 

 long thick crest is metallic purple, more or less mixed with green on 

 the basal half and entirely green on the terminal third which is sometimes 

 shot with deep blue ; face and sides of the head buff, shading into 

 white round the eye and into cinnamon red on the posterior cheeks, 

 chin and throat ; the neck hackles are bright chestnut tipped with 

 purple and with white strige on the anterior portion ; remainder of upper 

 plumage and lesser wing coverts dull brown glossed with bronze-green, 

 especially on the mantle and upper tail coverts ; tail grey-brown glossed 

 green. Lower neck and sides of breast brilliant purple-copper, sides of 

 lower breast with three bands of black and two of white ; remainder of 

 lower parts white ; flanks vermlculated black and brown, but with copper 

 bars opposite the vent and with black and white bars at the end of the 

 flank feathers. Scapulars grej^-brown, the innermost completely 

 glossed with deep blue and the median with green, the change being 

 graded and not clearly defined ; the outermost are white with broad 

 black edges. The innermost secondary, which is enormously broadened 

 into a fan shape, is chestnut on the inner web, tipped paler on the outer 

 half and with blue on the inner, on the outer web of this secondary the 

 tip is chestnut, the remainder deep glossy blue ; other secondaries brown 



