1882. ] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON AN AUSTRALIAN DUCK. 453 
tanea) in female plumage or non-nuptial dress, but which at the time 
of writing I believed to be Anas gibberifrons. I added that we had 
obtained several pairs out of the lot, and that we expected that some 
of them would breed with us that year. 
They did not breed with us in 1880 nor in 1881, although we had 
six pairs established in various parts; but this year we have been 
more fortunate. The pair of these birds placed in what we call the 
«* Waders’ Pond” nested the end of March last, and hatched out four 
nice young birds on the 2Ist ult., which are still all alive and 
thriving. 
There is no longer any doubt therefore that we have here to deal 
with a species which, however much it may resemble the female of 
Anas castanea, is quite distinct, and of which the sexes, as may be 
proved by the examination of our breeding birds, are very nearly 
alike, the female being merely slightly smaller in size and duller in 
plumage. It is, in fact, the species described in the ‘ Ibis’ for 1869 by 
Dr. Buller, from New-Zealand specimens, as Anas gracilis, but 
subsequently identified by Dr. Finsch (Ibis, 1869, p. 380) with Anas 
gibberifrons, 8. Miiller’. 
As regards the synonyms of this species, after the positive state- 
ment of Dr. Finsch and Prof. Schlegel, 1 think we can hardly accept 
Prof. Hutton’s unsupported opinion that “A. gracilis is distinct 
from A. gibberifrons”* ; and shall therefore insert our birds in the 
next edition of the Catalogue of Vertebrates as Anas gibberifrons. 
The following, if this view is correct, are the principal references 
to this species. 
ANAS GIBBERIFRONS. (Plate XXXITII.) 
Anas (Mareca) gibberifrons, Miill. Nat. Gesch. Land- en Volkenk. 
p. 159 (1841). 
Anas gibberifrons, Schl. Mus. d. P. B. Anseres, p. 58 (1866). 
Anas gracilis, Buller, Ibis, 1869, p. 41. 
Anas (Querquedula) gibberifrons, Finsch, Ibis, 1869, p. 380. 
Mareca gibberifrons, Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc. viii. p. 102 
(1872) ; Ibis, 1873, p. 321. 
Mareca albogularis, Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 303. 
Querquedula gibberifrons, Buller, B. of N. Z. p. 251 (1873). 
Anas gracilis, Hutton, Trans. N.-Zeal. Inst. xii. p. 271 (1880). 
Anas gibberifrons, Scl. P. Z. S. 1880, p. 519. 
Anas gibberifrons, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. iii. p. 38. 
To the localities given by Finsch (/. s. c.) may be added Andamans 
(Ball and Ramsay). 
Five pairs of this Duck are still living in the Society’s Gardens, 
besides two odd ones, believed to be females. Five of them died in 
1 First discovered by Salomon Miiller in Timor, and originally described by 
him in a footnote to his yolume on the “ Land- en-Volkenkunde” of the 
Dutch Colonial possessions as Anas (Mareca) gibberifrons. 
a 2 ay his article on Anas gracilis, Buller. Trans. N.-Zeal. Inst. xii. p. 271 
879). 
