THES VUKATA OR COUB OUGK, 
= es 
Sarcidiornis melanonotus, Pennant. 
— 
Vernacular Names.—[Nukhta, User India, Pinch Miahals, Deccan, &c. ; 
Nakwa, Chota Nagpur; Toopee-heydeggey, (Kole); Jutu chilluwa, (Telegu) ; 
Do’d sarle haki, (Canarese) JZysore; Neer-koli, Coimbatore ; ‘Tan-bay, 
(Burmese), Peg; Bowkbang, (Karen). ] 
SS SS Se 
) T one season or another, the Nukhta* is found through- 
out the greater portion of the Empire. But it does 
not ascend the hills anywhere, and does not occur 
in Kashmir, Kullu, Kumaon or Nepal. I do not 
know of its occurrence in the Punjab, Trans-Sutlej, 
or in Sind, except as a rare straggler to the eastern- 
most portions. I have no record of its appearance in 
Sylhet, Cachar, Tippera, Chittagong or Arakan.+ It does not, 
fomtie Mest or my belief; extend, at present, to any part ot 
Tenasserimt proper, and it seems doubtful whether it is found, 
except perhaps as a rare and accidental straggler, in the 
Western Sub-Ghat littoral, vzz., the South Konkan, the Malabar 
Coast, and Travancore. 
In Ceylon and the entire Peninsula{ east of the Western 
Ghats, in the Central Provinces, Gujarat, Cutch, Kathiawar, 
* Jerdon calls this the ‘‘ Black-backed Goose ;” but it is a Duck and not a Goose, 
and I therefore reject his name which is calculated to create erroneous conceptions. 
+ Tickell however says: ‘* The Knobbed Goose is tolerably common off the 
alluvion in Bengal, throughout the central provinces of India, and in Avakan, 
Burma, and Zezasserin. 
In Aracan it very likely does occur, and in Tonghoo, a district of Pegu, zow 
included in Tenasserim, we know that it does occur; but we have never obtained a 
trace of it in any part of Tenasserim proper, in fact in any part of what was 
Tenasserim when Colonel Tickell knew the province. Yet Tickell distinctly says, 
‘*T found them in Zenasserim, but nowhere numerous ; also in Burma and Aracan ;’” 
and we can only surmise that during the 30 odd years that intervened between his and 
our ornithological explorations of Tenasserim, the bird has ceased to visit this province. 
+ Note however that in the southernmost districts of Madras, in fact those 
south of Mysore, it would seem to be rare. Mr. Albert Theobald has shot over 
and collected in most of these for years, but he writes :— 
**T have only seen this Duck in this Collegal Taluq of Coimbatore, and not to 
the best of my belief further south. It comes here about December, and leaves 
again in February or March. It is very rare here, only four or five pairs coming 
in every year. 
**Tt is generally found in any small lake or jhil during the day time, but at 
nights they are only found in paddy fields where they go to feed on the grain, 
returning early to the lakes, where they keep near the reeds growing at the 
borders of the water. They are not wary birds and are easily shot, 
