MERGANSER CASTOR. 271 



low down in winter, tliat it is needless to specify the particular localities, 

 over seventy in number, whence I have received them or where they have 

 been reported to have been obtained. 



'' Outside the Himalayas I have received them, or known for certain 

 of their having been detained, from the Peshawar Valley, on the (.*abul 

 River ; near Attock, Kalabagh, and just above Dehra Ismail Khan on the 

 Indus ; near Sealkot, on the Chenab, and smaller streams ; the Kangra 

 Valley; below Roopur on the Sutlej; Dehra Dun, not only on the 

 Ganges from Rukikes to below Hurdwar, but in the interior; Pilil)hit 

 on the Sardeh ; the Sandi Jhil, near Hardui (Irh>/) : the Kosi River 

 towards the north of the Purneah district ; the Western Doars (where 

 they appear to b3 extremely numerous); the Monas in the Kamrup district; 

 some streams north of Lakhimpur ; close to Sadiya ; numerous localities 

 near the bases of the Garo and Khasi Hills on both their northern and 

 southern faces, and well inside them; near Jamtara, about 156 miles from 

 Calcutta on the East Indian line of railway [Brooks), at a large lake seven 

 miles from Burrakur; on the Grand Trunk Road, where there were some 

 hundreds (^Parker) , on the Damuda in Bankurah and Bardwan ; in 

 Manbhum and Dhalbhum on the Subanrika; Lohardugga (i?t<//); Singh- 

 bhum (Chyebassa^ Tickell); the Rer River, Sirguja (Ball); the Mahanadi, 

 near Arung (RaipurJ, and further down almost to Sambalpur (Bleivitf) ; 

 this latter district north of the Mahanadi {Ball) ; Palamow (^Money) ; and 

 the Sone River near Dehree-on-Sone {E. Stewart, C.S. — W. Forsytli); 

 lastly, Ajmere, near which place Major O'Moore Creagh, V.C., shot a 

 fine male in a large tank." 



In addition to these places, in ' Stray Feathers,^ vol. ii, Hume gives 

 Sylhet and Cacliar, though I have never seen or lieard of them myself in 

 either of these districts. 



The next record is a most important one by E. H. Aitkeu, and was 

 noted in the Journal of the Bom. Nat. Hist. Society : — " I shot a Goosander 

 {J\Ier(jus merfjanser) at Shewa just across the Bombay Harbour on the 

 2nd irjst. (Dec). It was a female or immature male, and was playing 

 along in a shallow sheet of water which formed the reservoir of one of 

 the salt-works. I believe this is the most southern point in India from 

 which this l)ird has yet been recorded.'"' 



Gates, merely because it was found in saJt xcater, does not accept 

 Mr. Aitken's identification, and thinks it must have been M. serrator. I 

 can see no reason for thinking Mr. Aitken was wrong, and accept, fully, 



