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INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 207 
No simpler key to the two Indian species ean be found than Blan- 
ford’s, which I give below :— 
a. Head and upper neck black, glossed with green (adult males). 
a’. Lower parts white throughout ...............castor. 
b'. Upper breast rufous with black marks ...serrator. 
b, Head and upper neck rufous (females and non-adult males), 
¢! ae white, back grey . saa mo daeeat sosCQStors 
', Chin streaked with nafone ee re .serrator. 
MERGANSER CASTOR. 
The Goosander. 
Mergus merganser—Hume, Cat., No. $72; Scully, Str. Feath., 
VIII, p. 364; Hume and Marshall, Game Birds, IT, p. 299 ; Hume 
and Cripps, ébid, XI, p, 847 ; Aitken, Jour. B. N. H.S., II, p. 56. 
Mergus castor.— Jerdon, Birds of india, II], p. 817; Hume, Str. 
Feath., I, p. 423 ; Parker, bed, II, p. 386 ; Ball, cbd, p. 489 ; Hume, 
ibid, VII, p. 149, Ball, zbid, p. 238. 
Merganser castor.—Salvadori, Cat. British Museum, X XVII, p. 472 ; 
Blanford, Avifauna B. 1.,1V, p. 469; Oates, Game Birds of India, 
ep. 125. 
Merganser comatus.—Salvadori, Cat. British Museum, XX VII, p.475. 
Description: Adult Male.—Whole head, upper neck and crest black, 
glossed with metallic green, shewing purple in some lights, the centre 
of chin and throat unglossed ; lower neck and under parts pure white; 
upper back glossy black ; lower back, rump and upper tail coverts 
grey, more or less vermiculated with white on the outer feathers, and 
the tail coverts also dark-shafted and sometimes with paler edges; tail 
silvery brown, paler and more grey on the lower surface ; primaries 
and outer secondaries very dark brown, inner secondaries white with 
a narrow edging of black on the outer'webs; large secondary coyerts 
white with black bases; primary coverts and edge of wing, black ; 
remaining coverts white; outer scapulars white, with narrow black 
margins ; the inner all black; one or two, next the white ones, tipped 
or with narrow, irregular white edgings. 
“The bill is, according to age, abrighter or duller, lighter or deeper 
red, almost vermilion in some, a cinnibar or deep blood-red in others, 
The nail and a broader or narrower stripe along the culmen, from the 
nail to the forehead, brownish-black, dusky, or black. In some, this 
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