MELLER’S DUCK 
ANAS MELLERI Sclateb 
(Plate 25) 
Synonymy 
Anas xanthorhyncha Roch and E. Newton {nec Forster), Ibis, ser. 1, vol. 5, p. 174, 
1863. 
Dafila erythrorhyncha P. L. Sclater {nec Gmelin), Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1863, 
p. 165. 
Anas melleri P. L. Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1864, p. 487, pi. 34. 
Anas moreli Grandidier, Rev. et Mag. de Zool., ser. 2, vol. 19, pp. 88, 255, 1867. 
Anas mascarina Vinson, Mem. Soc. Acclimat. de I’lle Reunion, 1868, p. 5. 
Vernacular Names 
English: Meller’s Duck. 
Madagascan: Angaka, Akaka, Akakamainty, Harki. 
DESCRIPTION 
Adult Male: General color reddish; the feathers brown in the middle and margined with reddish; 
head and neck with narrow dusky streaks, each feather margined with reddish ; feathers of the back 
with some narrow irregular reddish bars; speculum glossy green, bounded anteriorly and posteriorly 
by two velvety-black bands, the anterior one at the tip of the greater wing-coverts; a narrow whitish 
band at the tip of the secondaries ; before the anterior black band there is also a narrow dull-reddish 
band; tertials velvety brown, darker on the outer web; under wing-coverts and axillars white 
(Salvador!, 1895). 
“BUI black (?); irides sienna-brown; feet fleshy color” (Sclater, fide Salvador!, 1895). 
Wing 240-260 mm.; culmen 58; tarsus 38-45. 
Adult Female : Similar to the male. 
Young: Has a redder tinge, almost rusty, on the edges of the feathers of the lower parts (Salvador!). 
DISTRIBUTION 
Although it has been introduced on Mauritius the present species originally was found in Madagascar 
only. It appears to be quite common there, especially in the interior (Milne-Edwards and Grandidier, 
1876—81). StUl, specimens have been taken on all coasts: on the east at Tamatave (Roch and New- 
ton, 1863), on the northwest at Bombetok Bay, and on the southwest at Tulear (Milne-Edwards 
and Grandidier, 1876-81). It is common at Lake Alaotra in the northern interior (F. R. Wulsin 
specimens). On Mauritius the species was introduced about 1850, and though Sclater (fide Hartlaub, 
1877) states that it breeds abundantly there at Mare aux Vacoas, Captain Meinertzhagen (1912) has 
recently reported that on the whole, it had increased only very slowly in the sixty years preceding 
1910. 
