THE WHITE WINGED WOOD: 
DUCK.” 
Z 
Anas leucoptera,t Blyth. 
0 
Vernacular Names.—[Deo-hans, Assam. ] 
= () 
-) N ingenuous Frenchman once remarked, “Ce que je 
4, scais, je scais fort mal, mais ce que j’ignore je l’ignore 
parfaitement,” and similarly I may say that, of the 
Ducks I know, I have but a very indifferent know- 
ledge, while of those that, like the present species, 
I do zot know, my ignorance is quite perfect. 
Colonel Graham tells me that this species is rare in 
Darrang, common in the Lakhimpur district in Assam, and one 
of my collectors shot a specimen at Dollah, near Sadiya. 
Godwin-Austen says he got this species on the Dunsiri River, 
and that he once flushed one in the interior of the Garo Hills, 
and that one was killed near Tezpur. Further, specimens have 
been sent from Tavoy by Briggs, and by Birdmore from 
Mergui—in both cases, doubtless, obtained from the forests inland. 
* This species has been commonly classed as Casarca, and designated a Shell 
Drake, but it is certainly not referable to that genus. 
Of both Casarca and Zadorna (though in a lesser degree in the former), the 
culmens are concave, the bills comparatively short, and the tarsi not much shorter 
than the mid toe and claw. 
In the present species the bill has no perceptible concavity of the culmen ; it is 
proportionally long, and, whether looked at from above or below, is very close in 
shape to that of Azas boscas. Moreover this species has the tarsus very much shorter 
than the mid toe and claw, just as is the case in Amas boscas, andthe other members 
of the restricted genus Azas. 
Although I think it quite possible that, when we know more of this species, it may 
be found necessary to remove it from this genus, I think it better for the present to 
retain it under Avzas. 
Undoubtedly this bird has some curious affinities with Sarczdiornis. Whether in 
the breeding season the male exhibits any comb we do not know. And in fact the 
only specimen I possess at present was sexed a female. All my enquiries lead me 
to the belief that it is essentially a forest bird, and as some other name than Shell 
Drake is needed, I propose to call it a Wood-Duck. 
+ It is usual, no doubt, to identify this bird with scztalata, of Miiller, from Java, 
but I cannot accept this identification. Long ago (/éis, 1867, p. 176) Blyth, after 
examining Miiller’s three types in the Leyden Museum, remarked that they were 
“all abnormally parti-coloured, and having a domesticated appearance unlike the 
wild race,” 7.e., the Indo-Malayan species named ‘* /escoptera’” by himself. 
ee 
SSS 
