878 
Birds of Celebes: Anatidae. 
no mention of the occurrence there of such a bird as the male N. castaneunt in 
his “History of the Birds of New Zealand”. 
Sumba was recorded for Mareca punctata (■= N. castaneum) by Meyer 
(Verb, zool.-bot. Ges. Wien 1881, 767). The specimen certainly is not identical 
with two males of N. castaneum from Australia, being very much smaller, besides 
being in the female type of dress ; it is smaller in the bill (probably therefore 
a female) and a little greyer than our six specimens of the typical Nettion 
gibbeiiji-ons from Celebes, but otherwise we find it to be identical therewith. A 
specimen from Aru (C 6293: Riedel — a new locality) is similar to the Sumba 
example. 
The locality Java was indicated for Anas punctata (= castanea) long ago by 
Lesson (Tr. d’Orn. 1831, 252). The author of the species was unknown to him ; 
he suggests with a Horsfield, but this may have been due to the locality 
Java being perhaps indicated on the label, this island having been then recently 
made known in the ornithological sense by Horsfield’s researches. No one 
versed in the labelling of those days will attach much importance to the loca- 
lity. On the other hand N. gibherifrons has been recorded and described from 
Java by Dr. Vorderman; there is also an example from Java in the Dresden 
Museum similar to Celebesian specimens of N. gibberijrons, and one in the British 
Museum. 
From Celebes Anas punctata f= castanea) was recorded by Prof. Reichenow 
(J. f. O. 1877, 218; 1883, 122) and this remained the only notice of its having 
occurred there. ’) The probability of its having been N. gibberiji-ons has been 
already suggested by Prof. W. Blasius, and Prof. Reichenow, in answer to 
an inquiry hy ourselves, kindly informs us that “the specimen in question is a 
female and may therefore belong to gibberifrons, if that species is distinct^). 
Celebesian specimens of N. gibberifrons differ from Australian females of 
N. castaneum (if rightly determined) by the small size of the former and 
the cinnamon tint of the under surface, as compared with the buff whitish 
of N. castaneum — the middles of the feathers being, of course, brown. In 
New Zealand N. gibberifrons is larger than in Celebes, and no one has as yet been 
able to show how it is to be distinguished from the female of N. castaneum. 
The name gracilis was proposed for it by Buller, but afterwards withdrawn^). 
1) The '■‘■Anas punctata Tern.” of Finsch (Neu Guinea 1865, 183) is placed by Salvadori in the 
synonymy of Dendrocycna guttata, apparently ■with perfect right. 
2) Prof. Reichenow suggests that the males in the dress of gibberifrons in the Zoological Gardens of 
London and elsewhere may have been the younger examples of castaneum, not yet in full plumage. But the 
pair which bred in the Regent’s Park were at least 3 years old in 1882. 
“) The extraordinary dissimilarity of the male in breeding plumage of N. castaneum promises to afford 
food for philosophical investigatiou. At present it appears not improbable that the nuptial plumage was not 
acquired by a very gradual process, for then we might expect to see lower stages of this dress in the male 
of iV. gibberifrons. It really looks as if the male of N. castaneum must have come into its nuptial dress all 
at once, just as under domestication an abnormal individual is sometimes born which “breeds true . 
