Ye TUFTED POCTARD.* 
eee (fees 
Fuligula cristata, Leach. 
see Se ) ee 
Vernacular Names.—[Dubaru. Ablac, W.-W. Provinces ; Malac, Nepal Terai ; 
Turando. Sindh ; Nella chilluwa, (Telegu) 3 Neer-bathoo, (Tamil) ; Neer-kolee, 
(Canarese) ; Sonah, Ablak, Kabul ; ] 
ee ee J 
aie SERY rarely seen in the Himalayas, the Tufted 
§ Pochard is rather thinly distributed in the cold 
season over the Punjab and the Doab, is scarce in- 
Rajputana, more common in Rohilkhand and Oudh, 
and less so again in the Central Provinces and Bun- 
aN delkhand. 
SAS g In Sindh it is not very abundant ; in Cutch rare ; 
in Kathidwar and Gujerat, in the Central India Agency, 
Khandesh and the Deccan fairly common. 
In Bengal, Cis-Brahmaputra, it has been noticed in many dis- 
tricts, but I believe it to be rather scarce there, though my infor- 
mation on the subject is scant. Damant records it, and some of 
Godwin-Austen’s people procured it from Manipur ; but I have 
no other information as to its occurrence east of the Brahma- 
putra, whether in Assam, Cachar, Sylhet, Tipperah, Chittagong 
or any portion of British Burma. I do not doubt that it 
straggles into many of these, but the fact has yet to be as- 
certained. 
It occurs, in places in very large flocks, in Chota Nagpur, the 
Northern Circars and the Nizam’s Dominions, straggling by the 
way at times into the Southern Konkan. It has been shot near 
Bellary, and certainly though rare there, visits Mysore ; but 
south of this I have heard of it nowhere in the Peninsula, 
* On account of its bright yellow iris, this species is often called ‘* THE GOLDEN- 
EvE or ‘‘ THE INDIAN GOLDEN-EYE ;” but the ¢vwe Golden-Eye, (the species to be 
next dealt with), belongs to a quite distinct genus, and this name, commonly as it is 
applied out here, should be dropped in favour of the old-established English name, 
** The Tufted Pochard.” No doubt in Europe they call it the ‘‘ The Tufted Duck,” 
but it is a true Pochard. and I have therefore modified the name accordingly, 
+ This species has not been recorded from Kashmir (though I should expect it 
to occur there). I have never myself met with it in, or received it from any part of, 
these mountains, Hodgson only got it in the Nepal Zeraz, Scully never saw it in 
the hill portion of Nepal. But Mandelli obtained several specimens in the interior of 
Native Sikhim in the course of ten years’ collecting. 
