256 INDIAN DUCKS. 



Total length about IS'5 inches, wiug G-o, tail 4-5, culraeu 1-0, tarsus 1*3. " 

 (Salvadori.) 



" Total length about 18 inches, tail 3-5 (3 to 4-5), wiug 6-3, tarsus 1, bill 

 from gape 1-9." {Blanford.) 



" Females and young males have only the chin, lower cheeks, and a stripe 

 from above the gape, running back under the eye towards the nape, white, 

 I'est of the head black mixed with rufous ; the upper tail-coverts are like the rest 

 of the upper parts, and the breast is dull rufous without black bars. Otherwise 

 the plumage resembles that of adult males. Some specimens are much more 

 rufous than others." (Blanford.) 



Captain Macnab gives the dimensions of a female as follows : — " Length 

 IGi inches, wing 6|, tail from vent 3|, tarsus l^r, hind toe and claw 2|. 

 Bill at point 1^, bill from gape 1§." 



" Bill dull plumbeous ; iris dark brown ; legs plumbeous black." (Salvadori.) 



Young male. — " Very similar in plumage to the old female, only somewhat 

 more ruddy on the back." (Sahadori.) 



Young in down. — " Brown-grey ; upper part of the head and cheeks dark 

 brown ; a streak below the eye, from the base of the bill to the nape, throat, and 

 sides of the upper part of the neck dull greyish-white undulated with dusky ; 

 a whitish spot on each side of the rump just below the wings ; edge of the wing 

 and under wing-coverts whitish." (Salvadori.) 



The White-headed Duck inhabits the countries surrounding the Medi- 

 terranean, and extends thence into Western Central Asia, and, according 

 to Finsch, as far north as Southern Siberia, and also, as a straggler only, 

 into Germany and Holland, Ijeing, over the greater portion of its range, 

 either resident or only locally migratory. 



In India it is undoubtedly a very rare duck. When Hume and 

 Marshall published the ' Game-Birds of India,' the only record of the 

 StifE-tail Duck was the following :— '^ On the 20th October, 1879, 

 Ool. 0. B. St. John, R.E., at that time Governor, I think, of Kandahar, 

 shot a couple of ducks, of a type quite unknown to him, in the Jumeh 

 River, near Kelat-i-ghilzai. These ducks proved to be an immature pair 

 of the White-headed Duck.'^ 



Since this was written, however, there have been further rather 

 numerous records of this duck. In ' Stray Feathers ' (in loc. cit.) are the 

 following : — 



Mr. Field writes of a l)ird sent to ]\[r. Hume: — "I shot this bird 

 on the 28tli October at the ' old nullah,' about a mile from the Civil 

 Station of Ludhiana, Punjaub. It was sitting alone in a pool. I stalked 

 up close behind some reeds, and then showed myself, expecting to see it 

 fly. All it did was to cock its little stiff, thin, pointed tail, and swim off 



