1895.] LOBD LILFOED ON A UYBEID DUCK. 3 



boschas) and the Teal {Querquedula crecea), that had been caught in 

 a decoy in Northamptonshire, and read the following remarks : — 



" The skin sent up for exhibition was taken from a bird that 

 dropped on to our decoy-pool near Tichmarsh, Xorths., with a 

 small bunch of Teal, at morning tlight-time on December 21st, 

 1894, and was taken with six of the last-named species and six 

 Mallard soon after daylight. I very inuch regret that the decoy- 

 man did not distinguish its difference from the other ' fowl ' cap- 

 tured with it till after he had killed it. This specimen is without 

 doubt in my opinion a hybrid between Teal and Mallard, and 

 equally certainly belongs to the race to which Pennant gave the 

 name of ' Bimaculated Duck' (British Zoology, vol. ii. 8vo ed. 

 1776, p. 602, pi. C). Professor A. Xewton, to whom I wrote for 

 further information on the subject of this ' Bimaculated Duck,' 

 has most kindly and promptly supplied me with the following 

 details: — 'In his 'Arctic Zoology' (^1755) Pennant remarks (ii. 

 p. 575), ' My Bimaculated Duck (Br. Zool) has been discovered 

 by Doctor Pallas along the Lena and about Lake Baikal, and a 

 description sent by him to the Koyal Academy at Stockholm under 

 the title of Anas glocitans, or the Clucking Duck, from its singular 

 note.' This erroneous identification was accepted, as you know, for 

 a long while; Keyserliug and Blasius, in 1840, seem to have been 

 the first to perceive it (Wirbelth. Europ. p. Irsxv). They accord- 

 ingly named Pennant's bird A. bimacv.lata, without expressing any 

 suspicion of its being a hybrid, nor did such suspicion arise, so far 

 as I know, until a good many years after, — for I think I I'emember 

 Tarrell talking of it as an open question. However in 1856 he 

 had become convinced of the bird being a hybrid, and omitted it 

 from his 3rd edition published in that year, for by that time speci- 

 mens of the true A. r/locitans had been received in England.' 



" I find that in my first reference to Pennant I have omitted to 

 state that after his description of the bird, loc. supra cit., he writes : — 

 ' Taken in a decoy near in 1771 ; communicated to me by 



Poore, Esq.' Professor Xewton tells me that the blanks are 

 in the original, and at the end of his notes to me adds : — ' A. and 

 H. Matthews, in their List of the Birds of Oxfordshire (Zool. 

 p. 2539), say that they suppose the decoy at which the bird of 

 1771 was taken was that at Boarstall near Otmoor.' Tarrell, 

 in the second edition of his ' British Birds,' 1845 (vol. iii. 

 p. 260), supplies the Christian name of Pennant's correspondent 

 as 'Edward,' and after an allusion to Pallas says that no further 

 account has reached us of the specimen alluded to, nor has it been 

 ascertained w hether it was preserved. Tarrell goes on to say, loe. 

 supra cit. : — ' The specimens of both male and female, from which I 

 have taken the description, were sent up from a decoy near Maldon, 

 in Essex, to Leadenhall Market, in the winter of 1812-13. Here 

 they were observed by a respectable naturalist, Mr. George 

 Weighton, of Fountain Place, City-road, who immediately pm'- 

 chased them and set them up. From his collection they have 

 subsequently passed into mine. There can be little doubt of the 



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