169 



Male : crown and upper part of the back of the neck black, occasionally speckled with whitish ; 

 back, lower part of the neck, flanks, rump, and under tail coverts deep glossy black, each feather 

 transversely streaked with one or two narrow lines of white or light brown ; wings and tail sooty 

 black; remainder grey or silvery white ; bill and legs lead coloured, the former with a large com- 

 pressed caruncle on the lower mandible. 



Fern. : smaller than the male, but in colouring similar ; without the caruncle. 



Biziura Nova Bollandioe Steph. Sh. Zool. 12. 222. 



Hydrolases lobatus Temm. PL En. .A ". G8. 



Anas lobata Sham. Wat. Mis. 8. pi. 255. 



Lobated Duel Lath. Gen. S,jn. Sup. 2. p. 349. 



Le canard earoncule VeM. En. Method. Orn. 356. 



All that is known of the habits of this curious bird is contained in a short notice by Lieut. Breton, 

 K. N. inserted in the Zoological Proceedings for 1834, p. 19, from which we extract the following: 

 " He (Lieut. Breton) stated that these birds are so extremely rare that he saw only three of them 

 during his various excursions, which extended over twelve hundred miles of country. He has 

 never heard of any instance in which more than two were seen together. They are only met with 

 on the rivers and in pools left in the otherwise dry beds of streams. It is extremely difficult to shoot 

 on account of the readiness with which they dive. The instant the trigger is drawn the bird is 

 under water." 



ERISMATURA MACCOA. 



Eris. — Bnmnea, gutture lineaque infra oculos albis. 



MACCOA DUCK. 

 Brown duck, with the throat and a streak below the eye dirty white. 



Length 14 Tarsi If 



Bill 1| Outer toe 2£ 



Back black barred with ferruginous ; flanks brown barred with the same ; tail brown ; head 

 dark brown, undulated with ferruginous ; chin and streak from the bill below the eye to the occiput 

 whitish grey ; below silvery grey undulated with brown ; bill lead coloured ; legs with a tinge of 

 greenish ; speculum none. 



Oxyura Maccoa Smith, < 'at. S. Afric. Mua. 



A specimen is in our collection, brought home from the Indian Isles. Except from the difference in 

 locality, we should have supposed this bird to have been the young of Ostywra rubida. Since 

 writing the above we have seen a specimen brought home by Dr. Smith, and have adopted his name. 



N 



