182 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIII. 
equally futile. On this occasion I had spent about half an hour using every 
endeavour to rid the first egg of its contents, and finally, in spite of a large 
disfiguring hole from which all else had been evacuated, I found that the head 
refused to budge. I filled the egg with water and placed it hole uppermost on 
my table, intending to try the results of maceration, this at about 6 p.m. one 
evening, On the following morning with no effort the head came out. The 
other eggs of the same clutch I treated similarly, making een moderate 
holes, and I found no difficulty in blowing all, 
I have since tried this method on many occasions and with wonderful 
success, Of course there must be a limit to its effects, but I find in those 
cases where after some trouble most of the contents have been liberated 
and where a limb protrudes, portion of which may be got away, it is wisest 
to go no further but to try maceration, and I think I may venture to say - 
that an egg is blowable in this way perhaps three days later on in the 
incubation (of moderate sized birds) than the usual methods adopted can 
render it so, 
In the hills no doubt the period of maceration would require to be more 
lengthy. 
The egg is left with an odour of putrefaction which I overcome by blowing 
in weak Condy’s fluid, 
-F, WALL, Capt., I.M.S. 
RanGoon, 20th October, 1899. 
No. V.—OCCURRENCE OF THE WHITE-FACED STIFF-TAIL 
DUCK AT MARDAN. 
On November 12th, 1899, on a favourite haunt of Duck some three miles 
from Mardan, known as the Long Pond, I shot an extraordinary looking bird, 
which, directly I had it in my han4, I knew to be a specimen of the White- 
faced Stiff-tail Duck (Hrismatura leucocephala), 
T was riding in the morning along the side of the nullah (for this so-called 
Long Pond is in reality a nullah some 600 yards long of varying width and 
winding course, with groups of rushes here and there at its bends) and had 
just drawn a favourite corner blank, when I saw a solitary bird in the middle 
of the pond that looked in the distance more like a pochard than anything 
else, On getting closer, however, though its head and the carriage of its 
neck gave it the appearance of a duck, its tail, which it carried cocked at a 
right angle to its body, and its habit of constantly diving and remaining under 
the surface for a considerable time, led me to doubt whether it was a duck at 
all, Without dismounting for a nearer inspection I rode off to tie up my 
pony, determined to return and shoot it for the sake of identification, 
On coming back I found the bird very much in the same place ; but as I 
approached a hawk came on the scene and hovered over it evidently imagining 
that it had found its breakfast, and I sat down to see what would happen and 
