248 
ANAS FORMOSA 
DISTRIBUTION 
Siberia 
Kamchatka 
There is, so far as I know, no absolutely reliable information coneerning the extent of the breeding 
range of this species. In general it lies in northern and eastern Siberia, between the 48th and 71st 
or 72d parallels of latitude, and the 80th and 175th meridians of longitude east from 
Greenwich. It has never been recorded as breeding much to the west of the Jenesei 
River, but A. von MiddendorfI (1853) tells us it is the commonest duck on the Boganida (70° north 
latitude) not going as far north, however, as the Taimyr River (latitude 72° north). Recently Johan- 
sen (Mess. Ornith., 1912, p. 287) has recorded six specimens shot from a flock in May on the River 
Toma, Tomsk Government. He says the species also appears in autumn, but it is apparently a 
rather rare bird. It breeds in this region, as also much farther to the east on the Aim River in the 
Stanowoi Mountains (58° north). Along the Arctic coast of Asia we have it recorded breeding 
abundantly at the mouth of the Kolyma River (Thayer and Bangs, 1914; Riley, 1918; Dresser, 
1906), and in the extreme east it was taken at the very end of May, 1906, on the Anadyr River 
(Bianchi, 1908), where I presume it must breed. It has been taken on the Commander Islands 
(Bianchi, 1909; Hartert, 1920) as well as in Kamchatka (Dybowski.^de Taczanowski, 
1893) in which latter locality it may very likely breed, though at Gichiga it was seen 
only on passage (J. A. Allen, 1905). Von Bunge and Toll (1887) found a nest on Great Liakoff 
Island, off the Arctic coast of Siberia, but Schalow (1906) very justly calls in question this extraordi- 
nary record. No actual specimens have ever been taken so far north. Von Bunge (1883) found the 
birds common in flocks up to thirty or so in late June at Sagastyr in the Lena delta, but adds 
that these were all males, and that the natiA es told him about the occasional occurrences of females, 
saying, however, that they never bred there. It seems to be a fairly well-established fact that flocks of 
males fly as far north as the Arctic coast of Siberia while the females are incubating, and I hardly 
believe that the species breeds north of the 71st parallel of latitude. Farther south it has been taken 
at Jeneseisk on the middle Jenesei by Popham (1898). Suschkin (1913) says it straggles to Minus- 
sinsk on the upper Jenesei, and Dybowski (Taczanowski, 1873) states that it breeds near Darasun in 
Dauria, east of Lake Baikal. On the other hand Radde (1863) claims that it does not occur on Lake 
Baikal in summer, and Buturlin (1908) gives the 59th parallel as its southern limit on the Lena 
River. Probably it breeds in restricted numbers east of Lake Baikal and throughout the Stanowoi 
Mountains. At any rate it breeds in the Amur country (Baker, 1908) and possibly on Saghalin 
Island (Nikolski, fide Taczanowski, 1893) though hardly as far south as the lower Ussuri and the 
Suiffan River regions. On Yezo it has been seen in the spring and autumn (Stejneger, 1893). 
In the regions lying between the 48th and 55th parallels it is chiefly, if not wholly, a bird of passage, 
coming from the south, where it winters throughout China and Japan. Excluding the deserts of 
Mongolia it winters south perhaps to the 20th parallel and west to about 105° east 
longitude. E. H. Wilson (1913) found it in winter in western China near Kiating, 
Thayer and Bangs (1912) report a specimen taken on November 26, 1907, in the 
Hupeh Province, central China, and La Touche (1922) found it common in that Province in winter. 
Styan (1891) speaks of it as common on the lower Yangtse, and Wade (1895) says the same about the 
vicinity of Shanghai. R. Swinhoe (1873) reports it as fairly common at Ningpo, and La Touche 
(1892) states that it stays till March at Kiu-kiang in the interior. R. Swinhoe (1863) and Uchida 
(1912) have recorded it for Formosa, and Styan (1891) speaks of it as common at Foochow, occurring 
also at Swatow. On the whole it may be said to be very common in winter throughout southern and 
eastern China, as well as in Japan, especially in the southern districts. Blakiston and Pryer (1882) 
speak of it as common about Tokio, and even north of it, while Seebohm (1892) says it frequents 
Tsushima (between the southern extremity of Japan and Korea) in flocks numbering hundreds dur- 
ing the winter. In Korea proper, however, as well as throughout northernmost China, Mongolia 
and Manchuria it is really a bird of passage rather than a winter guest. 
China 
Japan 
