662 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NA TUBAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV. 



A specimen (6) in the B. M. collection shows this beautifully and 

 looks much as if the change being here undergone was one of colouration 

 in the feathers themselves. 



The same bird has the broad secondary partially developed, but has 

 no white edging to the outer web, so, presumably, this is not assumed 

 until the second year ; this feather is also not so much falcated as in the 

 adult bird. The adult colouration of the scapulars is only indicated by 

 a few blue tints, but the black and white bars on the sides of the 

 breast are well advanced. 



Nestling. — Above hair-brown, the edge of the wing pale buif and two 

 indefinite bars of the same colour on the sides, one in front and one 

 behind the thigh. Under parts wholely pale buff ; a dark-brown streak 

 running from behind the eye to the neck and another from behind the 

 ear-coverts. 



The only other species in this genus is the American species j^x 

 sponsa (The Summer Duck) ; in this the male has the crest all green and 

 the female differs from the female of A. gaJericulata in having the head 

 and upper parts, glossed with purple. The bill also is differently formed 

 in both sexes, being deeper at the base, and in sponsa the upper angle of 

 the maxilla runs far back into the forehead, whereas in the Mandarin 

 the line from gape to upper edge is practically straight. 



The [Mandarin is a purely Eastern Asiatic duck being distributed, 

 according to Salvadori, throughout " Central and Southern China, 

 Formosa and Japan ; Amoorland only during the breeding season." It 

 has also been obtained in Corea and now at last, in India. 



It is not long since Gates wrote : " This beautiful duck is not unlikely 

 to be met with on the borders of the Northern Shan States, " but it has 

 now been obtained far more West — in Assam. 



Mr. A. Stevens who shot the bird and most kindly presented it to 

 me, tells me, in epistola, how he managed to get it. He writes : " Early 

 one dull morning I went in a dug-out down the Dibru river on a 

 collecting trip. The Dibru, then at low water, is a siiiall stream 

 varying between twenty and fifty yards wide, here and there dotted with 

 sandy banks and islands, but for the most part densely covered with 

 iuno-le down to the water's edge. Twice single specimens of Asarcornis 

 scutulata (The White- Winged Wood Duck) passed down the river on 

 their way to their favourite haunts and held forth hopes of something 

 good to be had later on. I had gone some two miles down the river and 



